With the fate of our country “hanging in the balance” so to speak, millions of Americans tuned in on Sunday night to view the second presidential debate between Republican nominee Donald Trump, and Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton. The debate seemed to have started amicably enough, after Trump apologized for comments that had surfaced on a video that had released last Friday and went viral soon after. “This was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it, I apologized to my family, I apologized to the american people” concluded Trump.
It would seem as if the American public would continue viewing the debate on amicable terms. Discussing important, hard hitting topics affecting Americans such as health care, foreign affairs and the like. At least, that was my hope. While these topics were discussed briefly to some extent, it was soon after that both candidates engaged in the same reprehensible behavior that had been seen previously. There seemed to be more focus on candidates accusing each other of wrongdoing, continuously breaking the debate rules from the moderators and the like. It got frustrating to continuously hear the same topics and phrases being brought to light time and again, as opposed to talking strictly on issues facing our country and how to fix them. “You deleted 39,000 e-mails” Trump accused.
“You engaged in the racist attack on our President with the birther movement,” Hillary later reminded the audience.
“I will get a special prosecutor to look into your situation,” threatened Trump with regards to Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal again. It also got tiring to hear both candidates find new ways to say “that’s not true,” or “That’s false,” when confronted.
There were topics of substance that were worth talking about, issues that mattered to Americans, and it is very likely that there were some. But I found it very difficult to find them amidst a debate that was so saturated with hostile and dishonorable behavior from both camps. It wasn’t until the end of the debate, when some semblance of amicability and respectability was being attempted to be restored, when a last minute question was posed “Regardless of the current rhetoric, would either of you name one positive thing that you respect in one another?” Though both candidates did seem to give applicable answers, one can not help but wonder just how sincere they were.
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