october debates spook the u.S.
I think we can all agree that this year has been one of the more terrifying in the past decade and yet this October found a whole new way to scare us. We had all foreseen Trump’s election in 2020 as a canary in a coal mine for a bigger issue trending, but turns out it was nothing compared to the utter despair we now face going to the polls. In my opinion both presidential debates were comparable to what we’re all going to experience during Thanksgiving dinners: incomprehensible murmurings from senior family members, lots of finger wagging and tantrums fueled by an apple cider sugar high. What's more is they showed us our version of democracy is under direct threat. Two influential orators of history can help us explain the how and why.
The first is Aristotle. He actually coined the term Democracy and technically saw it ending badly. His worry was that true Democracy requires the polis to make informed decisions, keyword there being informed, and in order to be properly informed of their choices and the benefits of each, a debate or public forum must be held. In prosperous times this isn’t so hard, people take their potential futures seriously and vote with hope for their union. But in bad times, this becomes particularly tricky. The laboring class is under stress, financial or environmental, their decision making skills can easily become impaired, kind of like my ability to skateboard while carrying a 30 gallon bucket on my head. This could lead them to pick a man who represents their wish to abandon virtue and find more aggressive tactics to find their fortune. Sound familiar?
I know by now it seems like 2016 is a long tragic Lifetime movie ago, but the biggest fear we harbored on the West Coast besides the vision of a toddler Trump with matches surrounded by an oil spill, was the fear that our idea of democracy is truly dead. (Don’t get us started on the Electoral College!) However, it did help us realize that our three branch system wasn’t broken, it was functioning exactly how it was supposed to. It benefits people of a certain class while systematically distributing to only the wealthy. Remember when Trump compared himself to Lincoln? Well in my opinion Trump might be the first President to actually make Lincoln roll over in his grave. Compare the Gettysburg address to one golden quote from Trump’s 2016 campaign “Arg, I don’t know what I said.” Abraham Lincoln was a legendary orator, and he cemented the nation’s cathartic need for public speech on issues we face as a collective country. His debates against Stephen Douglas on new states and slavery led to the establishment of these debates that Donald continues to belittle.
Public rhetoric, meaning the ability to communicate a clear idea to a large audience, is an integral part of a democracy by its very definition. It has the power to move public opinion and end your entire career, just ask Howard Dean! We the people are privileged enough to make decisions for ourselves, but to fairly compare candidates for a presentable Commander in Chief we need to hear them speak, uninterrupted. We need to see what their reactions are when faced with provocation and conflict. The whole of the UN operates this way as well, implying debate is actually the universal language of the world. The chance to speak on your platform and outline what you stand for is a right protected by this sacred debate structure. Therefore when these rules and formats are ignored it completely disrespects the spirit of checks and balances. This disrespect since it is also televised worldwide is akin to a wife broadcasting her husband's ineptitude in the bedroom during a company dinner party.
The Presidential debates caused such alarm to the point where they were quickly labeled the worst in history. The Guardian’s David Smith even wrote, “This dark, horrifying, unwatchable fever dream will surely be the first line of America's obituary." As a former member of the National Forensics League, (that’s debate team for you non nerds) I can attest to the importance of proper debate structure. Seeing as a bunch of high schoolers are able to execute this with ease, I was disturbed along with the rest of the world to see these two older “politically savvy” presidential candidates failing so miserably to do the same.
Our delicate political dance of swinging pendulums and the pursuit of life, liberty and capital has finally produced its very own monster of circumstance. When a government’s priorities go unchecked, apparently somewhere around the 200 year mark, you might end up with results that end in the worst consequences, in our case possibly hundreds of thousands of lives unnecessarily lost.
Trump’s egregious attempt to undermine the checks and balances system and playfully threaten the idea of a dictatorship undermines the intelligence of all Americans. Despite this, today while driving to my polling station I saw a man on a freeway overpass in a pale cowboy hat slowly swishing a 40 ft tall Trump flag overhead. Honks could be heard in the distance like the rustling of trees right before a werewolf attack.
Kay is a Los Angeles resident DIY girl. Her creative streak runs through many mediums. When she is not writing or crafting custom furniture, she is making music or Etch-a-Sketch art. She hopes to one day write comedy in Hollywood or New York, but for now she just makes memes.
