First Presidential Debate Essay

The First Presidential Debate (2016)
After watching the first debate, many unknown questions become clear on both perspectives of the two candidates; The two candidates being, of course, Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party and Donald Trump of the Republican. The debate quickly jumps into the questions and the first was primarily focused on the economy.
• “Why are you a better choice than your opponent to create the kinds of jobs that would put more money into the pockets of American workers?”
Each candidate was asked to describe their vision on the need for more jobs throughout America, but mainly for those in need. Hillary was the first to answer. She goes for a wide variety of issues. Her response includes an equal and higher pay rate for every citizen, a rise in clean and

renewable energy, and affordable education along with health care. To carry out this plan, she quickly points to the upper class of America. In this case, they would basically pay more than they would today. Donald Trump was then given his time to discuss the problem. He was quick to blame other countries for our low amount of jobs. Explaining how we are helping the world around us instead of ourselves. Instead of a way to add jobs, Trump wants to prevent them from leaving off to foreign nations. To do so, he wants to tremendously lower the tax rate for business, small or large. With this in place, the belief is that new business will boom in the United States leading to more jobs. The subject then goes a little off topic as the two candidates fire shots at one another.
Although they had opposite solutions, neither perspective really appealed to me, but if I had to choose, I’d side with Hillary’s. Her plan is kind of unstable and Trump’s basically benefits specifically the wealthy along with himself. I believe the rich should add their share to the economy. The only issue I have with her perspective would be the debt free college. Something that eventually pays itself off in a couple of years shouldn’t be considered debt free in the beginning. Everything is worth something and education is what it’s worth.
• The next question asked was linked to the aforementioned one but more towards the tax on the wealthy. They were both asked to defend their ideas.
It was first stated that Trump wished to lower taxes while Hillary plans to raise them. Trump was given the first say, abasically elaborating on his previous viewpoints. His response was almost a repetition of his response on the first question. Trump wants to cut taxes on the wealthy. This would, hopefully, keep them from leaving the country because taxes are too high as of right now. If they do leave, he wants to impose a high import tax on their products. This is basically how he wants to use the power of taxation. On the other side of this idea, would be that of Hillary Clinton’s. She doesn’t really elaborate on her tax incentives, but targets Trumps. She brings up past policies that are very relatable to his and explains how they were complete failures. It then goes completely off topics once again as both attacks each other’s flaws.
In this case, I hate to say it, but Trumps response seems kind of logical only if the cuts apply to businesses. If they weren’t taxed as high, they’d probably stay in the country instead of manufacturing products in China or Mexico. If they do leave, it only seems right to raise the taxes on the products coming in. This would ultimately leave companies in a state of low money income than the amount they make today.
• “How will you heal the divide?”
The third important segment involved the big issue of race. Hillary speaks first on the subject. She explains how race determines the outcome of many factors such as education level, where people live, and how they’re treated in the justice system. The restoration of trust between law enforcement and communities was her main point in the response a long with gun violence. The stage was then given to Trump. He wants to restore law and order. The violence throughout many cities throughout the country are extremely dangerous. He believes this needs to end with a strong enforcement and some gun regulations on criminals, agreeing with Hillary in a way.
I strongly appeal to Hillary’s response.

The country needs to trust those who keep it safe and in order. Her statement was, I believe, a majority of the country’s idea on the whole race issue. Trump goes on by saying how he agrees with her in many ways. Therefore, I guess I can agree to his statements as well. The United States needs to be safer as of right now for every citizen, no matter what race they are.
• “Who’s behind it and how do we fight it?”
The next topic was focused on the new warfare of technology. Factors like the information of citizens and government have been other countries main goal to grasp through internet hacking. Many institutions are constantly under attack. Clinton was first to respond on this 21st century warfare issue.
She starts by naming the two different threats in the problem; the first group who steals information to make money and then the second group being nations such as Russia. After bring up the country, she then brings up the relationship between Trump and Putin, the president of Russia. Her plan is to make the level of defense clear towards the many threats of cyber hacking towards the United States. Donald was next in the issue of

defense.
Trump brings up his support received from multiple high ranked officers and military organizations. He then agrees with a bit of her comments, but goes further into who’s to blame for the damages. Obama was brought up as the downfall of what we used to have control over. His response then quickly turns to the area of Isis. To him, they’re above the United States as of right now in the cyber warfare. He doesn’t really offer a solution on how he plans to tackle the issue.
It transitioned to the subject of Isis very quickly so it’s kind of hard to agree with either one of the candidates. I’d have to go with Hillary’s statement once again in this case. Many countries slowly grow stronger and stronger in this kind of warfare. So slow that the United States doesn’t realize how vulnerable it really is. We as a country need to make the defense and consequences very clear. Moreover, in the fight against Isis and countries that obtain nuclear weaponry.
• “How would you prevent home-grown terrorist attacks by U.S. citizen?”
The fifth and final topics of the debate was about the primary concern of self-inflicted terrorism or harm to our nation. Both turn to past happenings such as Iraq. Trump blames Hillary and Obama while she quickly brings up his support for the war. They simply got at it yet again. Hillary then finally answers the question.
She states we as a country need to combine multiple sources of intelligence from different countries; basically meaning that we should work closely with our allies to fight against terrorism. Hillary then elaborates on the help we get from Middle Eastern territories who contain primarily Muslim individuals. Trump is known for his appeals towards the Islamic community but, she explains how we should actually be cooperating with our very own Muslim population as well. Hillary sees a bond that can be created with many more countries. The only problem is can we trust them to do their part? Donald was next in the discussion.
He quickly points fingers at her and Obama’s past decisions on recalling units from overseas. Trump also believes he was the main influence on current defenses against terrorist. His support for Iraq was supposedly made up by the main stream media. There’s no solution in his response just a desperate need of clarity on what he supported in the past and what he currently supports today. I’m assuming he’s agreeing with Hillary on her points but can’t really be sure of it.
In this predicament, Hillary’s view is more appealing. We are a strong country, but things have changed over the past couple of years. Many other nations have also advanced in technology and weapons of mass destruction. It only seems right to team up with other countries that also want to take the bad out of this world. The United States should avoid what Trump plans on doing. To me, he automatically assumes any race besides “White” is a threat to the community around them. This will take us back to our segregation days. America has overcome that; we just need to make it stronger.
This debate, overall, looked like two kids fighting over a toy that try to explain why each deserves it more than the other. Although both looked presidential, they acted far from it. At first it started of smooth but, turned into a dog fight minutes later. Trump acted so childish at times to both Hillary and the moderator. He was constantly interrupting them without care just to make a sarcastic or irrelevant remark. All I heard when Clinton spoke was a loud “WRONG” out of Trumps mouth. He was just up there pointing fingers at her and Obama and never fully answered the multiple questions that were asked. There were also times when he’d agree with Hillary and just add a little something to change it up. Clinton on the other hand wasn’t bad but, at the same time, wasn’t good. She started off strong but finished a low as Trump. She would call him out on his past mistakes and elaborate on them. I think her main goal in this debate was to attempt to change the minds of many Trump supporters to the Democratic side, I couldn’t keep count of the number of times when she tried to make him look like the worst choice for this massive responsibility. Neither of their performances appeared presidential. It was just really horrible and there’s no other way to further explain this presidential election.
Both Hillary and Trump had few instances of positive actions in this debate. For Trump, it was the fact that he may have cleared up some assumptions that many people believed. She hit as hard as she could but the comments made would bounce of the facts or statements from Trump. Hillary would look like she lost an argument at times. Trump’s main goal was to defend against any words that came out of her mouth so that the loyalty from his supporter would stay solid. I believe he kind of executed it. Hillary would also have the upper hand throughout the debate. Sometimes she’d corner Trump leaving him to change the subject to her problems. This basically made Trump look weak and uncertain about the issues at hand. That was also her goal. Both failed in their answers. All response were short in meaning and filled with bashing remarks towards the opposing candidate. At the end of the day, this debate didn’t show anything but the ridiculous viewpoints of our only options for the presidential position. It’s going to be one or the other. I for one don’t really care for this election as much as I actually should.