The presidential debate was best summarized by two sentiments: Trump was spewing coherent lies, and Biden spewing incoherent truths. The format of the debate—with muted microphones but without fact-checking—was good for Trump and bad for Biden. The debate was also made more interesting since both candidates had previously been in office meaning they often jumped to attacking actual policies enacted by the other candidate.
As a member of Generation Z, the elephant in the room—Joe Biden’s age and mental fitness—was especially frustrating. His train of thought seemed to veer off the tracks far too often. His voice was hoarse and it was sometimes hard to make out what he was saying. Although Trump sounded more coherent, his age is not even close to the median U.S. population age of 39 years old; and at 78, he is only three years younger than Biden. Gen Z is the youngest voting generation and the furthest from the candidates’ ages, which calls into question how much their interests align with ours.
If the debate was about candidates’ stances alone, Biden would have done better. The current president pressed his opponent about his felony convictions and about his statements that the capitol riot defendants were treated too harshly. And Trump’s falsehoods—which were not fact-checked during the debate—included his claims of capping insulin costs before Biden did, Democratic states executing babies after birth, Biden wanting to quadruple people’s taxes and there being no terrorist attacks on Trump’s watch. However, debates are never about transcripts alone; they are about optics, and Biden’s shaky performance in an unscripted format clearly fell short.
Acknowledgment: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author.
Optics versus transcripts. It's a profound statement. November is going to tell us which is a stronger argument.
Great synopsis, Greta. Indeed, one of the great cises of our time is one of leadership. The geriatrics associated with modern American politics reminds me of the later days of the Soveit Union. That is: no poitical dynamism, no youthful vigor, and a growing rift between aging politicians and they populations they represen. Its time to turn over the guard to the younger generation in this nation.