By: Will Stark and Hank Bartholomew
*The following is a fictional conversation between two citizens, each representing a member of a different party. This conversation attempts to display the major viewpoints of members of these parties regarding recent developments in the presidential race. The opinions expressed in this piece do not reflect actual beliefs of the authors*
Ok, so, where should we start?
I’m not sure, there’s just so much that has happened since school let out. I started this summer with incredibly low expectations, but now they’re sky-high.
It’s true, this has seriously been a roller-coaster of a race. I mean, who said politics was supposed to be boring?
Couldn’t agree more. But for me, at least, things couldn’t have started out much worse. That first debate was a nightmare.
That definitely had an impact. Prior to the debate, the race was pretty neck-and-neck, and after, Trump was surging in the polls and everything. It just seemed like everyone wanted him back. Either way, it was definitely a victory for the Trump Campaign.
It was, but I can’t help but wonder if maybe people overreacted. Biden has had a stutter his entire life, and while his memory did appear shaky, his record over the last three and a half years has been incredible.
Regardless of what Biden has done or plans to do, he really didn’t sell himself in the debate. He appeared to stumble over his words, forget what he was saying, and overall seemed less confident or assertive than Donald Trump.
I guess that is true. But I’d argue that it wasn’t Trump’s brilliance that won the debate as much as Biden’s struggles. And you have to admit Biden was able to fire a few shots back. He slammed Trump for being a convicted felon.
Good points. Good thing voters have short memories for legal blither-blather. Valid points were also made against Biden, reminding the public that Biden’s border has more holes than Swiss cheese, and his term recorded extremely high amounts of undocumented immigrants.
I can’t argue with that, although I doubt as many of these immigrants are criminals as Trump would lead you to believe. But no matter how you spin it, his handling of the border undoubtedly lost Biden more than a few voters. But let’s move on. Because this July, something truly shocking happened.
Oh boy, shocking is a mild way to put it. On July 13th, a gunman opened fire on Donald Trump giving remarks to his supporters at a lively rally in Pennsylvania, punching a hole in Trump’s ear and killing an innocent bystander. Luckily, the situation was secured and no further damage was done. I mean, just when you thought that Trump was locked for the White House, this happens.
It was a dark day for the U.S., and I’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who wasn’t horrified by the news. For the Trump campaign, perhaps the only good thing to come out of this act of terror was a massive boost in the polls. But at the same time, many on the far-right spread conspiracy theories about the shooting, arguing it was an attempt by the Biden administration to knock out their biggest competitor. These kinds of statements only led to more conflict, anger, fear, and confusion.
Well, no one really knows what happened. The whole situation is shrouded in mystery. It also didn’t help Biden’s case when he reportedly told donors that it was “time to put Trump in a bullseye.” Plus, it’s really cool to have a President who survived a freaking assassination attempt.
You may have a point. But yeah, it’s mistakes like what Biden said, as well as mounting pressure within his own party, that led to Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race. But I don’t agree with the Trumpians that this was a decision of cowardice. Joe Biden loved his country, and recognizing that he was hurting his own party’s chances of defeating Donald Trump, a man he genuinely believed was a threat to the nation, he dropped out of the race.
You’re right, I have to agree with you. Whether Trump is really a threat to democracy or not, choosing your party’s agenda, as well as the fate of your nation, over yourself is a noble thing to do.
Not only noble, but also strategic. Immediately after Biden dropped out, his incumbent Vice President, Kamala Harris, became the forerunner for the nomination.
Before we talk about that, I just want everyone here to step back and look at the race so far. We started out with two old men vying for office, pretty boring, all that jazz. In less than 3 months, one of them takes a huge metaphorical hit in the polls, another takes a literal bullet to the head, and then a couple days later, one drops out and is replaced with a newer candidate. Like, this historic race has been so exciting. Then enter Kamala Harris. This new development is VERY bad news for Trump. He spent months and millions of dollars perfecting this campaign as a weapon against Biden, and then there’s no more Biden.
For sure. Harris brought new energy and life to the Democratic campaign, raising a record breaking 200 million dollars in her first two weeks. She led her party through a great DNC, and the momentum has not slowed.
This was really scary for the Trump Campaign. However, with some quick pivoting, the campaign was able to find some quick ammunition against Kamala, namely fracking and immigration. One thing was for certain however, both parties, as well as the public, were itching to see how the two would do facing off in a debate.
I wouldn’t necessarily say the winner of this debate was as clear-cut as the one between Trump and Biden, but it’s hard to look at it through any lens other than a Kamala Harris victory. Her frequent needling of Trump evidently got under the former president’s skin, resulting in him erupting into tirades and rants about insignificant issues. While it wasn’t necessarily pretty, Harris got the job done.
Kamala certainly was better at rhetoric than Biden was. Trump however, was able to make some very important points, including bringing Kamala under fire for her changing policies. Also, I wouldn’t call Trump’s round-about way of answering questions tirades or rants, rather anecdotes or metaphors that allowed Trump to emphasize his points. Kamala isn’t exactly concise either, with most of her responses beginning with “Well, when I was a prosecutor…” or “Let’s look at the context…”.
You raise some fair points. And I won’t claim that Harris had a perfect performance. But it’s hard to truly say that she did worse than Trump. Simply, there was nothing glaringly wrong enough to interfere with her overall message. Harris needed to put herself out to the American people as an alternative to Donald Trump, and she did just that.
And yeah, that brings us to the now. The race, in a way, seems to be back to where it started. Two candidates, tight polls, and battleground states to win. The only question now is, who will win?
