The Most Important Report Before Presidential Debate
As Americans, it is our civil duty to elect the best fit candidate. There is an obvious partisan issue between who is deemed the best fit to run the country, and we as voting citizens should take this responsibility very seriously. With the completion of the Democratic National Convention, we now have two independent public addresses we can compare between both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Think of the presidential election as a classroom project, and we are the grading teachers. However, this holds far greater weight then a baking soda volcano and scale-model of our solar system. The first Presidential Debate is scheduled for September 10, 2024. This report is intended to be as objective as possible. We will examine both speeches, the length of time each candidate spoke, the content within the speeches, their visions for the future, the crowd interaction, and clear observations during the conventions.
Former President Trump on stage to accept the Republican Nominee.
via The New Republic
Starting in chronological order. The Republican National Convention (RNC) which featured former President Donald J. Trump, spoke for a total of one hour and 35 minutes. Where he dives into his assassination attempt and recognizes the firefighter, Corey Comperatore, who lost his life during that incident. This took up about 15 minutes of his speech. Trump then outlines his accomplishments during his term in office, defeating Isis, rebuilding the military, and creating medical innovation through his “Right to Try Bill,” policy, which gave doctors the ability to try new treatments instead of Americans resulting to leaving the country for new treatment methods. This took up about 7 minutes of his speech. For the next 40 minutes Trump dives into his policies he would focus on if elected, bringing America to “new heights.” For starters, he is adamant on ending the wars upon his election. He wants to lower energy costs by being “energy independent,” this is where his “drill baby drill,” slogan comes from. He will take a sliver of the enormous defense budget to finish the wall and secure our border. He is going to bring manufacturing back to the states by imposing tariffs on foreign companies, specifically the automotive industry. Stating that if a foreign company wants to sell in the U.S, they must build in the U.S. using American workers. He will sequentially end the Biden electric vehicle mandate. Trump stated that he will fight to uphold social security and medicare by eliminating the tax on social security payouts. And lastly, he will enact the largest deportation of illegal immigrants in history. For the next 20 minutes he focused on military. Stressing that China was in Cuba building railroads, and Russian subs have been found just 60 miles off the coast of America. Trump made a bold statement threatening that, “U.S. hostages better be returned to the states before his reelection.” He ended his speech by talking to Americans saying, “we are not asking for enough and settling for too little.” Trump stands by the fact that success will bring America back together.
Kamala Harris entering stage to accept the Democratic Nominee. via Reuters.
The Democratic Convention (DNC) had all eyes watching due to the change of nominees as Biden dropped out from the presidential race. Kamala also did not have the resume of national appearances in comparison to Trump, so the country was eager to hear the current Vice President of the United States. When appearing on stage, the crowd erupted. Harris was on stage speaking for roughly 38 minutes. The first eight minutes was dedicated to opening up to the country on who she was, her childhood, her mothers impact, and why she became a prosecutor for the state of California. In the beginning of her speech she constantly used improper grammar specifically, “my sister and me.” Along with the grammar, she did directly use profanity twice in her speech. Kamala also used the audience to her advantage, with constant pauses to let the audience cheer, or pointing at the section of the state she was referencing. Kamala then used four minutes to talk about project 2025, and what she believed was Donald Trump’s stances for issues like the Department of Education, Tax policies, and the U.S. Healthcare System. Kamala stated that she is adamant on building the middle class, emphasizing a strict budget, living within our means, “wanting for little, and making the most of our opportunities.” This goes into her plan of creating an “opportunity economy.” She circles back to Trump and her fight for women’s reproductive rights, pushing for reproductive freedom as a federal mandate. Some other “freedoms” she wants to restore is the Biden’s Freedom to Vote Act, allowing people to vote without the presentation of ID or citizenship. Kamala states that she wrote the strongest border deal and it didn’t get passed because “Trump killed the bill.” She exclaimed she wanted to restore the “proud heritage of being a nation of immigrants.” She spent the last 10 minutes speaking on foreign policies, urging for a ceasefire in Ukraine and standing strong with her NATO allies in support for Israel stating, “I will stand for Israel’s right to defend itself.” She believes she would be a better leader to handle these situations because Trump is, “easy to manipulate.” She ended her speech with optimism for the everyone’s future, “None of us has to fail for all of us to succeed.” She walked off to Beyonce.
When comparing the environment of the National Conventions, we see a night and day difference in the amount of red, white and blue (RWB) flags you see in the RNC compared to the DNC. Many left-wing goers were sporting a blue and white “Kamala Walz” signs. Kamala had a gold flag pin, while Trump had a RWB pin. The DNC had many pipelines for attendees to donate to their campaign, while trump had a lot of “MAGA” banners.
This report is not meant to sway anyone in either direction, but to give you an objective perspective of both conventions. I hope that you can take everything for what it is, and make an informed decision based off of your personal ideas and hopes for a better future. With the debate scheduled for September 10, on ABC America is eager in anticipation to hear the two go head-to-head on the national stage. As American citizens, we should feel obligated to step up and be informed and educated on the vote we plan to make in November.