For the past couple of election cycles, presidential debates have been “must-see TV.” Tuning in to watch Donald Trump and Joe Biden argue back and forth was a spectacle, a national event that demonstrated the sort of surrealist, absurd haze politics has been engulfed in since at least 2015. If this wasn’t especially the case in 2020, it was at the last debate between the two earlier this year, when Biden performed so badly and gaffed so hard he was pressured to drop out of the election.
Maybe it makes sense, then, that last night was comparatively boring. There were a few good moments, here and there, but it wasn’t the comedy of errors we’re used to. For the first time, perhaps ever, Trump appeared stumped. His entire campaign strategy hinged on Biden remaining in the race, and I genuinely believe, should that have happened, Trump would’ve won the election. But he’s out of his element now, he’s confused and disoriented and it clearly affected his performance yesterday.
Kamala Harris didn’t perform exceptionally well by any means, but the fact is she performed well enough. She did exactly what she needed to do: She played the part of the cool, level-headed adult in the room, combating her opponent with well-articulated arguments. And it did work, it did manage to get underneath Trump’s skin. For all intents and purposes, she won the debate.
Unfortunately, it still feels like we’ve all lost.
At several points, Harris and Trump seemed to almost be competing to be the most conservative person on the stage. Harris, at varying points, bragged about how Dick and Liz Cheney endorsed her and praised “the late, great John McCain” for voting against repealing the Affordable Care Act. She reiterated, again and again, her unwavering support for fracking, a practice that has been demonstrated to disrupt animals’ migratory habits, degrade nearby land, and emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases like methane. She endorsed Biden’s immigration plan that would’ve all but shut down the border to asylum seekers, a move straight out of Trump’s playbook. She perpetuated the right-wing myth that immigrants at the border are to blame for the opioid epidemic.
It’s clear that much of her campaign strategy is to appeal to the so-called “moderate Republican” voter, the sort who believes the GOP was righteous and good before Trump desecrated it with his vulgarity. It seems that bloc is who she feels is most important to speak to and most important to placate. She’s no longer offering even the hollowest platitudes to the progressive wing of her own party is over, those are not the people she’s intending to court. It’s a strategy that runs with the assumption that they’ll vote for her anyway, so who cares?
And she might be right. If I had to guess, I’d say the progressive bloc of the Democratic Party will eventually rally around her and begrudgingly vote blue like they did with Biden. The leftist coalition that has protested both candidates and reiterated their unwillingness to vote for the Democratic nominee is most certainly a minority in the broader political scene. In 2021, Pew Research Center reported that this “progressive left” comprised only about 7% of registered voters. Don’t get me wrong, these are important conversations to be having, and all eyes must remain on the ever-climbing Palestinian death toll, but I don’t believe it’s very likely that this movement will have much of an impact on the results of the election.
Nevertheless, progressive positions are popular. Harris, who once expressed her support for a Medicare for All program, has since abandoned the proposal despite a majority of Americans supporting some form of universal healthcare. Democrats have abandoned any rhetoric about a $15 minimum wage, another concept that carries mass appeal and demonstrates one of the most concrete methods of improving the lives of workers. In 2020, there was a concerted effort from Biden’s team to adopt some of Bernie Sanders’ proposals, to present him as a progressive candidate who could really shake up the status quo — the only effort this election cycle is to present Harris as the most moderate candidate possible.
Last night, when the topic of abortion came up, Trump taunted Harris and Biden’s inability to save Roe v. Wade. “You know what it reminds me of?” he said. “When they said they’re going to get student loans terminated and it ended up being a total catastrophe.” Trump is no friend to the progressive movement and has repeatedly made it clear, even during the debate, that he doesn’t support any sort of student loan forgiveness. But bringing it up regardless was a fantastic move on his end and highlights how vital it is to pressure people like Harris into explaining why the Biden administration didn’t work harder to get that sort of debt relief distributed. I’ve long made my case that there was much more that could’ve been done to save the bill from its violent death at the hands of the Supreme Court, but it is absolutely time for the Democrats to explain why they did nothing.
There’s a point where you have to ask: Is this really the best we have to offer? Biden dropping out of the election could’ve been a springboard for the Democratic Party, a time to totally rebrand and commit to an actual substantive adherence to the political wishes of young, progressive Americans. Instead, the Harris campaign has appropriated the Gen Z aesthetic, while still demonstrating little actual desire to change young people’s material conditions for the better.
Progressives like myself are often asked why we spend more time criticizing Kamala Harris than Donald Trump, and I think the answer is pretty simple. Trump has been at the center of American politics since 2015 and will most likely continue to be at the center of it until he can physically no longer run for president. We know well enough, at this point, how terrible of a person he is and how horrendous his policies are. The Democratic Party is, in our electoral system, the only viable alternative to an increasingly radical GOP. And we should undoubtedly expect more from politicians who claim to represent the party of the people.
The debate did little to sway voters, it did little to convince anybody of any sort of positive political change. And that is precisely the issue.
Joey Sills (he/him) is a senior with a major in English and minors in political science and comparative literature.
