In the final presidential debate there were plenty of memorable moments that stuck out to me, but the moment that stuck out the most was Mr. Trump refusing to declare that he would accept he results of the election. His exact words were “I’ll keep you in suspense, ok?” This moment actually made me furious.
Look, I consider myself fairly conservative. I typically support Republicans and will most likely vote for more R’s than D’s this November. Yet despite my own ideology, the nominee of the party I believed I identified with more has continued to find new ways to make me sick of him. The reason why this moment has made me so mad is that he is essentially discrediting the very notion of our democracy and he is acting as if it a cutesy joke to imply that maybe he won’t accept the results. I’m getting pretty tired of these claims of the process being “rigged.” He cried foul when Ted Cruz was picking up momentum in the primaries and that was when Mr. Trump was still WINNING. Now that he is very likely to be blown out electorally, these claims have been ramped up.
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This notion that the election is “rigged” is absurd. First, our elections are decentralized, they are not run by one monolithic election force. It is really 50 separate elections ran by the 50 states and their respective parties. To be able to pull off a large scale “rigging” would involve potentially millions of people. In fact, several of these so-called battleground states have Republican Secretaries of State. They are in charge of their states elections. You would think if they were to “rig” an election for anyone, it would be the Republican nominee for President.
Ultimately, this election won’t even go down as one of the most contentious American elections. If the data proves to be true, Mr. Trump will lose. Potentially “bigly.” In 1960, Richard Nixon had legitimate claims that there was actual voter fraud in Illinois to swing the election for John F. Kennedy. Mr. Nixon conceded the race to Mr. Kennedy to help preserve the ideal of democracy. In 2000, Al Gore ended up with more votes than George Bush. Mr. Gore conceded the race to Mr. Bush to help preserve the ideal of democracy. Instead of spending time on running a viable presidential campaign and trying to win, Mr. Trump is whining. He is trying to cover his mistakes and shift blame from himself to some larger conspiracy. Ultimately, I know that Mr. Trump will concede when he loses. But it is this little dance he is doing, making light of not accepting the results that is what makes me so mad. He thinks that he is so clever, but he is really just coming off as a sore loser.
-Kole Musgrove
Of all the things that were shocking and appalling about the final debate on Wednesday night (because believe me there was a lot of things), the one that made my blood boil was that Trump said he had “more respect for women than anyone”. REALLY. Let me remind you all of the fact that this man has made countless derogatory remarks against women, has probably sexually assaulted several because he brags about it to colleagues, and is constantly caught on camera judging women solely based on appearance. Not only did he say this, he couldn’t make it through the debate without calling Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman”. Regardless of how rude this is in general, is this seriously the man we want representing our country? A man that doesn’t have an ounce of respect for others, especially women? He can’t even maintain composure for ninety minutes, let alone four years. Now that the election is in our hands, I think we need to consider how we want to be represented on a global scale, and how Donald Trump’s demeanor and remarks towards others is a representation of us as a nation.
-Taylor Hunter
Interesting debate tonight. I am actually impressed at how civil it was.
Donald Trump stating that he may not accept the final decision of the election reassured Hilary’s victory over him this evening. Donald Trump lived up to his expectation of being uneducated, sexist, and unprepared to lead our country.
Trump avoiding the question of whether he has sexually assaulted any women was shocking. As he avoided answering the allegations by saying they have been “largely debunked”. What does that even mean? So you have sexually assaulted a woman, or not? He continued to say that these women are just one part the conspiracy against him, the media being the other.
Trump also displayed his outlandish, discriminatory nature by interjecting while Hilary was speaking with “She’s such a nasty woman”. That type of remark from someone who has already lost the respect of women is appalling. Trump stating that Roe v. Wade would be overturned with him in office shut him out in the eyes of American women.
Both candidates avoided questions on many occasions, choosing to divert the attention away from them and onto their opponent.
-Michelle DeRoetth
For approximately the first 15 minutes of the last 2016 Presidential debate, I understood why some people support Donald Trump as the next US president. He expressed his strong opposition to abortion, he restated his commitment to upholding the second amendment with no intentions of putting any gun restrictions in place and he emphasized his conservative beliefs that resonate with many Republicans throughout the country. For those 15 minutes, he kept it together.
After that, Trump returned to his usual rhetoric and antics and it all went downhill from there.
Mr. Trump insisted that his plan to build a wall on the Mexico-US border would be better for the country than Senator Clinton’s plan of granting amnesty for all illegal immigrants currently in the US (which is not actually her plan). He also reiterated that Bill Clinton’s NAFTA deal (a deal that was actually proposed and signed by H.W. Bush and then ratified by Clinton) was a disaster. The deal was actually found to have little effect on the economy either way. Before I continue, I would like to point out for those who have forgotten that it is Hilary Clinton running for president, not her husband Bill Clinton. Are we judging Trump on his what is wife Melania has done for the country?
The rest of Trump’s debate performance was marred by his inability to keep his utterance’s to himself (“wrong”, “nasty woman”, “you’re the puppet”) and his habit of making statements that are completely untrue (his claims that Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia pay nothing for the US military bases in their country, his claim that there was a terrible job’s report that came out in September which was a far cry from terrible, and the ridiculous accusation that Hilary Clinton herself was responsible for the growth of ISIS). Worst of all he refused to say that he would accept the results of the election if he lost. Overall, Trump’s debate performance reaffirmed my belief that he would be a terrible representative of our country and that we would be less safe and prosperous under his leadership.
As for Senator Clinton’s performance, I think she had some highs and lows. I couldn’t get past the fact that she never really answered the question of whether or not donors to the Clinton foundation got preferential treatment while she was in office. Instead she side-stepped the question by listing all of the good that the foundation has done. Furthermore, her plan for free college tuition for students with families that make less than $125,000 has been panned by critics who say that her plan would put a drain on the US treasury and might cause an increase in tuition prices once colleges realize the government will be covering the costs.
While neither candidate has a spotless record nor a particularly inspiring plan for our country’s future, I think what this election comes down to the character of each candidate. Do I want a president who refuses to apologize or own up to the mistakes that they’ve made? Do I want a president who has repeatedly degraded women on more than several occasions? Do I want a president who is inspires violence and division within our country? The answer to all of those questions is no. That’s why I know who I am voting for.
For a complete fact check of the debate you can go here.
-Mariah McHenry
