On Tuesday night in Philadelphia, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced off in a debate that was a time capsule of the epic highs and lows of American politics in the last decade, covering the white supremacist attack in Charlottesville, VA. to Black Lives Matter protests in Seattle, WA. The only throughline in the wide-ranging discussion was chaos — but that is exactly what viewers needed to see. It illuminated for Americans the absurdity of this moment in time in the United States and forced them to ask: “How the hell did we get here?”
It is difficult to overstate how much this election has changed since the last presidential debate in June. Since then, President Biden dropped out of the race, delegates nominated Harris in Biden’s place, Trump survived an assassination attempt, and the nominees announced their running mates — all in the span of less than three months.
Yet, despite such a rapid and extreme evolution of this election, the events of the last three months were not among the night’s main talking points. What we saw on the debate stage Tuesday night was the culmination of years upon years of politics fraught with dysfunction, polarization and egotism.
Each of the candidates had their own challenges — debating is not Harris’ strong suit, and she has often struggled to respond to criticism off-script as impressively as many of her peers, while Trump had no way to escape his deceit, felony charges and convictions. Obviously, one of them had bigger problems.
Neither of the candidates walked away looking better than they did at the start of the night. What happened on that stage was less of a debate and more of a race to the bottom.
It is true that Harris succeeded tremendously in setting Trump off, armed with the perfect comebacks to get under his skin, taking aim at the size of his rallies, suggesting that world leaders laughed at him and that military leaders saw him as a “disgrace.” She put his weaknesses on blast, highlighting how truly insecure the former President is. Trump’s exceptional immaturity and tendency to go down screaming at any criticism made a constructive and coherent debate impossible. Harris has no choice but to poke the bear and let him roar to highlight her own stability. She could not win on logic because he has none.
While this walk down memory lane served as a reminder of Trump’s fragile self-esteem, it simultaneously forced us to recall a time when character was not on the ballot, when the deciding factor between candidates was not who threw the fewest temper tantrums or said the most buzzwords but who had the platform that best represented our interests.
This is not to say that the two did not discuss policy. Harris outlined some clear goals, including a child tax credit, pushing for abortion and IVF access and expanding the Affordable Care Act, while the former president emphasized tightening the border and raising tariffs, but he also aptly described his healthcare policy as “concepts of a plan” rather than a plan itself.
More often than not, it was difficult to decipher each of the candidates’ platforms between the yelling and fact-checking. The sheer disorder was distracting at times, with Harris stumbling to respond to Trump’s often false accusations while also answering the question at hand. This disorder paired with Trump alternating between yelling at moderators and yelling at Harris defined this debate.
It felt as though the candidates presented viewers with a scrambled Rubik’s cube and demanded that we solve it. The parts of a cohesive and constructive debate exist in there somewhere, but only so long as we take the time to remix it.
This level of disarray is not something that Americans have to adjust to, but rather, it is something that we must actively resist. It is not normal for moderators to shut off microphones during debates to prevent incomprehensible tirades. It is not normal for the electorate to take a true/false test as they read headlines, assessing the validity of claims from people who are supposed to represent the best of our country.
What we saw on that debate stage that night in the birthplace of the American experiment did not reflect the values that so many of us have. Independence, progress, respect for our neighbors and creating equal opportunities for everyone — these ideas are the backbone of the United States.
That debate was not only a reflection of the candidates and their opinions but also the dire straits the political system is in. Conspiracy, competition and chaos are not the cornerstones of America, as this debate suggested. We know that people with different ideas can live in harmony, and that the pandemonium that plagues the government at all levels does not have to exist.
Call this debate this debate what it was— a mess— and demand something different. Demand decency.