3 Things We Learned from the First Presidential Debate
By: Hisham Iqbal
Tags: Funny, Joe Biden, Presidential Debates, Elections, Donald Trum

3 Things We Learned from the First Presidential Debate

Even though most, if not all, Americans agree that the first Presidential debate was a mess, there are some very important lessons learned from the event.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump in their first debate. Photo: CNN Co. Ltd, all right reserved.

On September 29th, the United States of America was blessed with a 2-hour manifestation of the future of American politics for at least the next 2 months. As bad as 2020 has been, nothing prepared us for what we witnessed during the first Presidential debate. As someone who has already decided on who they will vote for, I simply watched this debate to understand the policies and points that each candidate was advocating for.

For me, this debate was merely a formality in the election process. In all honesty, I doubt many Presidential debates sway the decision of a voter to vote for the other candidate but I do know one thing that is likely after this first debate: some voters may be swayed into non-voting after the disaster of a showing that was showcased today.

Not all is lost in the cause. This debate showed Americans 3 things that are important to take into account as we move forward as a society.

1. Teachers are not paid enough

I know this is something we all, generally, agree on but this debate solidifies the case even further. In fact, whatever we do think teachers deserve to be paid, double it.

The average American public school teacher's salary is $61,730 per year. To put that in perspective, the average salary for a computer systems analyst is $73,000. Not to throw my noble analysts under the bus but I doubt they have to deal with a Trump vs Biden every. single. day. for a whole school year.

During the debate, Chris Wallace of Fox News anchored the debate and clearly looked lost and confused. If Chris Wallace was a piece of paper, Donald Trump was what you do when you're trying to throw the paper into the trashcan as you shout ‘Kobe’; he absolutely crumpled Wallace.

A depiction of what Trump did to Wallace during the debate.

As a moderator of a debate, you are expected to, um, moderate. With that role, you are responsible for upholding the integrity of the debate and allow for adequate conversation between the individuals. What Chris Wallace did was sit back and watch an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

At several points during the debate, the candidates could be heard giving slight remarks under their microphones as the other gave their 2-minute speech. Word to Wallace, maybe enforce a silent microphone for the non-speaking candidate? At other moments in the debate, Wallace would not even enforce a 2-minute threshold for Trump, allowing him to continue talking until Trump felt his tanning lotion start to drip. Wallace did not remind the President he was not following the allotted time given to each candidate until the debate was an hour and 13 minutes in.

Although Wallace could have and should have done a better job holding the candidates accountable to allow for the American people to actually benefit from the debate, he was put in an incredibly difficult position. Similar to teachers across the world, Wallace had to deal with children that were not at all cooperative. At least he has a comfortable seat at Fox News reserved for him that I am sure pays him enough to get through a night of national embarrassment. As for teachers, their work goes unnoticed night in and night out as they prepare the future of our generation to hopefully do better than what was seen in the first debate.

2. This Election is Going to be a Train Wreck

Similar to the first point, this is something that most people already had a gut feeling about but the first debate all but guarantees it. If the most powerful person in the United States of America and the person trying to become the most powerful person in the United States of America are not able to act cordial and civil in front of the whole country, what will make them act any differently in any other circumstance?

Think about it. The first Presidential debate is the first stage that sets both candidates against each other in front of the whole country. Most people would hope that the first impression is the best impression but not for Biden and especially not for Trump. For them, the first impression is the chance to completely disregard the other candidate and reign supreme.

President Trump has already mentioned that he has no intention of a peaceful transfer of power, something that has never been said by an incumbent President. For Trump, this election is ‘win or go home’ but for him, home is still going to be the White House. For a President to essentially say that he will accept nothing other than a win and will fight tooth and nail to prove that he is the rightful winner, this first debate is slated to be the kid-friendly version of what is to come.

In just one debate, both candidates threw names at each other, interrupted each other over 20 times, attacked family members, made enough meme worth faces for a full photo album, negated every single argument that the opposition stated, brought up collegiate GPAs, a mask size contest, stated an Islamic phrase, asked the other to shut up, and embarrassed America beyond words. November is about to destroy us.

3. A Bad Debate = Social Media Gold

For every awkward and dispiriting moment on the debate stage, there were thousands of tweets and posts that mocked that said moment. From live reactions to pop culture references using debate topics, social media was ablaze with memes galore on Tuesday night. Whether it be a shot at virality, a coping mechanism, or simply a moment worth sharing, this debate inspired extremely creative and clever Tweets across the interwebs.

Twitter reached a point where every single United States trend was in relation to the debate in one way or another. Trump had been the number 1 or 2 trending topic for over 7 hours and had garnered over 10 million tweets.

Some of the best tweets came at the most pivotal moments of the debate. During a period when President Trump continued to interrupt Joe Biden, Biden lashed out at Trump by loudly saying “Will you shut up man?” which soon became another trending topic and inspiration for posts. In fact, the Team Joe Twitter account even began creating merchandise using the phrase:

Team Joe merchandise via @TeamJoe

Even the rare contentious topics discussed on the stage were not invulnerable to the power of social media. During the debate, Chris Wallace asked Trump if he would denounce White Supremacists, specifically Proud Boys. The President gave the Supremacists a pass by saying “standby and stand back” and shifted focus on the left instead. This full affair can be documented in a single tweet:

What to Look Towards Moving Forward

Nothing. If these debates have shown us anything, it’s that there is no need for debates as they clearly will not accomplish anything of substance. All this to say, if there is a debate with a moderator that can adequately administer a debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, there are a slate of questions and topics that are important to address before November. If not, I do believe that the Vice Presidential debate will be less volatile and adhere to general debate protocol.

Regardless, remember to learn about your state’s voting policies and cast your ballot to have a say in which of these Jersey Shore extras will have the opportunity to represent our country!