Donald Trump has made a mockery of American democracy. That fact was just made plain for an hour and a half on prime-time television, and no one—not the debate moderators, not his opponent, Hillary Clinton—could stop him.
Donald Trump has made a mockery of American democracy. That fact was just made plain for an hour and a half on prime-time television, and no one—not the debate moderators, not his opponent, Hillary Clinton—could stop him.
Let’s recap what happened in this town hall debate, the second of three. The Republican candidate:
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Hardly any of this will be new to anyone who’s ever seen a Trump rally. Up until this debate, though, Trump has confined many of his nastier lines to the airport hangars and stadiums.
The town hall was meant to be an opportunity for undecided voters to ask thoughtful, probing questions of the candidates—ones deserving of honest answers. The moderators, ABC’s Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper of CNN, tried to keep both candidates on point with their responses. While Clinton tried at first to challenge Trump, she had mostly thrown in the towel about 20 minutes in, sticking to her own record and vision for the country. She and the moderators were no match for Trump’s deluge of lies and bad manners.
The debate format simply isn’t designed for the level of deceit and ugliness Trump brings to the US presidential race. And neither, we’re seeing, is American democracy. The system presumes that though candidates differ in their views, they ultimately respect the electoral process and the voters they aim to represent. Trump left no such impression at the debate, defiling yet another institution that is meant to help Americans maintain civil discourse despite their differences.
