by Adam Clifton
On September 10, 2024, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris faced off for their first debate against each other in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Most people would agree that debates should serve as a communicative device of ideas for the American people but Tuesday did not live up to that standard.
As expected, Trump put Harris on the defensive early by criticizing the Biden administration for inflation. Harris fought back by claiming they inherited the bad economy from Trump. This trend of blaming each other’s administrations continued for the rest of the debate and became increasingly heated as the evening went on. At multiple points, both candidates interrupted the ABC debate moderators to get the final word. Both candidates dodged multiple hard questions and neither candidate used much, if any, formal argumentation. CNN, The Washington Post, ABC, and multiple Fox networks are in agreeance that Trump lost the Tuesday night debate but it seems the American people are the real losers.
Debates are supposed to be a battle of ideas. A battle by which opposing ideas meet and one idea prevails. This core idea is the basis for American democracy and without it, the United States’ republic cannot properly function. A good example of this principle in action is the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. These debates focused primarily on slavery and both presidential candidates, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, methodically spoke every word. When Lincoln and Douglas went head-to-head in Alton, Illinois on October 15, 1858, Douglas opened with approximately 28 distinctive points. Lincoln then responded with about 42 distinctive points of his own which included responses to the points made by his opponent.
This is what a battle of ideas looks like in practice. One candidate must build an argument. The opposing candidate must then refute that argument with their argument and so on until the debate concludes. This rarely happens in modern politics and it almost certainly did not happen on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, between Trump and Harris. Both candidates spoke past each other for the majority of their TV time and neither candidate disciplined themselves enough to critically evaluate each other’s remarks.
There is potentially a solution to this problem. During the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, they discussed slavery alone for three consecutive hours. In the Trump-Harris debate, they discussed 21 different topics for about an hour and a half. According to NBC News, discussion over character and fitness took the largest portion of debate time totaling a little over 20 minutes. Further, various topics such as the economy, abortion, and foreign policy broke up those 20 minutes into multiple, nonconsecutive segments.
The issue with the modern debate style may not be the lack of skill or knowledge. It instead could be the lack of time to adequately discuss a topic. Trump and Harris do bear partial responsibility for this. Even when asked about a specific subject, both candidates often discussed other topics that appealed to their voter base. The moderators also bear responsibility for the lack of a cohesive subject matter. The ABC moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis asked Trump and Harris numerous questions ranging from the economy to January 6. If debate moderators begin to narrow their focus on one or two topics, this forces candidates to build arguments for their positions rather than resorting to slandering one another for political gain.
Once the arguments become the center of attention, only then will debates properly serve their purpose as platforms for the free exchange of ideas. This is essential for the longevity of the great experiment known as the United States of America.
