The first presidential debate of the 2020 election will undoubtedly go down as one of the most memorable in history.
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden participated in the first of what was supposed to be three presidential debates this fall, on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020.
Social media was aglow in a variety of responses during the debate. People tended to be in disbelief of what they were experiencing. Some would even struggle to call the broadcasted event a debate at all.
Trump and Biden continuously interrupted each other during one another’s allotted two-minute response time. They even interrupted and spoke over the moderator, Chris Wallace, multiple times.
Fast forward a few days later, and both Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were diagnosed with COVID-19. This has caused the second presidential debate to be cancelled after Trump announced he would not attend the debate on a virtual platform.
While it would take a novel to unpack everything that has occurred politically in the past two weeks, I do have a few thoughts on what I have observed not only on the television and on social media, but also what I have observed within my fellow humans.
For the first time in what seems like a lifetime, everyone seemed to mostly agree with each other on one thing: the debate was difficult and incredibly uncomfortable to watch. Where some disagreed was why it was uncomfortable to watch. However, I noticed that everyone as a whole, on social media and through personal conversations, agrees that what we as a nation observed was not at all a debate and an embarrassment to the nation and our values of discourse and debate.
My political views are my own, and they do not play into the simple fact that the debate stands out among all the debates our nation has seen in its short history. I have learned to value one-on-one conversations with friends, family, co-workers, and students that in return educate me and help me shape my own opinions. Hostility, disrespect and stubbornness seem to rule the political climate of the U.S., and it now rules our online relationships.
I can only hope we see a return of value and respect for our fellow men and women. The debate serves as a lesson as to what can happen when pride, arrogance and stubbornness take over and eliminate any type of discussion, whether that be on live television or between two friends in a coffee shop. How we move forward depends a lot on if we vote and if we can learn to listen to another view.
Photo Credit / Associated Press
