After a year of debates, the US is at the final step
The final war of words was a close contest between Clinton and Trump, but the Democratic nominee pulled through and is the clear winner. That being said, let’s take a look at where America stands right now and what will happen on November 8, writes Aishwa
IF THE third debate was vicious and angry, the Al Smith Dinner was a comedy show. I thought Hillary Clinton sitting two chairs away from Donald Trump was strange before I heard their speeches. Clinton threw her head back and laughed at Trump’s jokes about her, and Trump sat with a sheepish grin on his face when Clinton opened up his can of worms about women. Confused? Me too. From jumping down each other’s throats to screaming at each other on live TV, Clinton and Trump went on to give 20-minute speeches joking about each other’s biggest flaws – Clinton made fun of Trump’s need to rate women based on appearance and Trump made fun of Clinton by saying if she becomes the president, he would be her ambassador for Iraq or Afghanistan.
You take a step back from laughing yourself and realise this makes Trump look more human and relatable and you do a double take. You’ve surprised yourself.
And that’s exactly what happened at the third presidential debates too.
If you ignore the one-hour mark when Donald Trump said that he may not concede the elections if he lost, you have to agree that the third presidential debate was his strongest performance so far.
He was calm, poised and clinical during the first 20 minutes, sometimes making Hillary Clinton look nervous and defensive. He talked about appointing pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, de-funding Planned Parenthood and upholding the second amendment.
I don’t agree with his “ripping the baby out of the womb is not a woman’s business” ideology. As Clinton said, it is a scary rhetoric that will induce fear in people, and we know what fear makes people do. But, I understand that he has a point of view. Which until now hardly ever made its way into the debates, what with all the blame games he was playing.
The first 20 minutes was definitely Trump’s. But his volume was getting steadily louder and the breaking point for him was when Clinton called him Vladimir Putin’s puppet. “No puppet, no puppet. You’re the puppet,” he said.
But we can’t ignore his “I’ll tell you at the time. I will keep you in suspense, okay?” – can we? That, in Trump-tongue, essentially means he might rally a bunch of lunatic supporters and make sure the transition of power is not peaceful and happy. That sentence to Trump supporters means: Get your weapons. We are going all out on “crooked Hillary”.
And that should scare all of us. That is not democracy. That is dictatorship.
Oh Donald, how close you were to actually winning this debate, before you lost your mojo and started threatening the American democracy on live television.
And while we are talking about losing mojos, let’s talk about all the time Trump said “Thank you” and “Correct” when Fox News anchor and moderator Chris Wallace brought up facts that were against Hillary – like the WikiLeaks emails or the donations received by the Clinton Foundation. Of course the statements made by Wallace are correct.
He is a journalist. That’s what journalists do. Do you think he is a lie-spouting human being too? That is just you, Donald.
And when Clinton surprisingly interrupted him, he gave her a death glare and said: “No, it’s my turn.” I think now he understands what it is like to be interrupted hundreds of times when somebody is trying to make a point.
On top of all the drama on stage, Tomi Lahren, a conservative political commentator, aka a Trump supporter, along with Eric Trump and Rudi Guiliani, went live on Facebook on Trump’s official page, telling people how the mainstream media was a part of Clinton’s Super PAC.
At one point immediately after the debate, there was an alert on the page that read: Donald Trump wins debate. Based on what? Oh, Trump’s media allies don’t think it is necessary to back a statement with a source.
Here’s the difference between their journalism and the journalism done by mainstream media: the mainstream media says Clinton wins debate based on polls and focus groups. Facts. You say what is ideal for Trump. Because you live in this bubble called the “Trump world”.
Despite everything, you have to give it to him for pointing out Clinton’s Achilles heel and talking about the WikiLeaks emails, the video recording of Democrat supporters inflicting violence in some of his rallies and the North American Free Trade Agreement deal. He was calm and poised when explaining his position on these, and a calm Trump is scarier than an angry Trump. Because he is more convincing. He is more believable. He is more relatable.
Clinton’s strongest point in the debate came, as I predicted, in the segment about fitness to be the president of the US.
“When I was in the situation room monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting The Celebrity Apprentice.” Mic drop. It must sting to know that the person he’s running against has done more for the country than he can possibly ever imagine.
Despite this, the debate was good for both candidates and for America – we heard their plans on a lot of important issues like illegal immigrants, drug trafficking and Islamic State. Trump talked about deporting all the 11 million undocumented immigrants while Clinton talked about bringing them to the forefront of the economy and making use of them.
“We have undocumented immigrants in America paying more in federal taxes than a billionaire; I find that astonishing,” Clinton said. Another mic drop moment.
Do we want to see Trump spend millions of dollars rounding up undocumented immigrants across the country? No. Can that money be spent to find out the criminals of the lot and deport them? Yes. Simple as that.
One thing stood out through all the three debates: Clinton wants to build from the middle up – middle class to upper class – whereas Trump wants to build from top to bottom. And this thinking comes from how they are as people.
Clinton knows what it is like to be a hard-working American earning a decent salary. Trump only knows how to deal with millions of dollars. This innate difference in principle brings out all the major differences. Do you want the rich to get richer or do you want to see the working middle class prosper? I will let you decide.
After watching all three debates, I must say it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
We no longer have to punch our tables or hit our laptops in exasperation as the orange-faced Republican nominee spews more lies. Clinton no longer has to smile or shake her head in astonishment as Trump talks callously about women, democracy and violence.
The debates are over. Polls say 52 percent of voters think Clinton won while 39 percent think Trump won the final debate. After over a year of primaries, caucuses and debates, we are at the final step of the election campaign – voting day.
American democracy is very different from democracy either in India, where I am from, or in South Africa.
In the US, the president and the vice-president are elected through indirect elections – the Electoral College based on the votes of the people.
Each state has a particular number of members – called electors – representing their state in the college. People from each state vote for their nominee and whichever candidate – Clinton or Trump – wins in that particular state (based on the maximum number of votes) gets the votes of the electors from that state.
There are a total of 538 electors throughout the US. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the election.
Now, among the 50 states and Washington DC, there are the blue states, states that overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party – California, Washington and Massachusetts – and there are the red states, states that are predominantly Republican – Texas, Idaho and North Dakota.
But there are certain states which are neither Republican nor Democrat, called swing states, battleground states or purple states – Michigan, Nevada, Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin – and intense campaigns are held in those states because these states could swing in either direction and have been the reason many presidents have won or lost in the past.
Despite the fact that the Electoral College votes between mid-November and mid- December, a call can be made on Election Day as to which candidate won which state, thereby predicting the winner.