The Democratic debate on CNN provided a refreshing change from past Republican debates and portrayed the participants, for the most part, as candidates who were focused more on discussing issues that actually mattered to the American people than on attacking and deriding their political opponents. This debate stood in stark contrast to the second Republican debate, which devolved into name-calling and personal attacks. The participants seemed more intent on bashing their opposition on past decisions and statements instead of discussing actual policy.
One of the most prominent exchanges that showcased the considerable difference between the debates involved Bernie Sanders’ entertaining take on Hillary Clinton’s decision to use a private email server to store work related emails. Sanders defended the secretary by saying that “the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails!” He followed up the remark by saying, “Enough of the emails, let’s talk about the real issues facing America.” Sanders’ decision not to take a shot at Clinton contrasted with Republican candidates, who attacked their opponents every chance they had, regardless of whether or not it was relevant to the issues. Nearly everyone in the Republican debate resorted to this unscrupulous behavior at some point or another, including Trump, who insulted Rand Paul’s appearance and said he shouldn’t have been allowed in the debate, and Carly Fiorina, who attacked Trump’s business and private sector track record.
The Democratic debate also yielded more specifics about how candidates are planning to accomplish the goals they have set out. For the most part, candidates spelled out or, at the very least, gave a general explanation of their plans. This was true when candidates discussed everything from college costs, which both Sanders and Clinton said should be significantly reduced, to financial reform, which all candidates agreed should be a priority. This is in contrast to the Republicans, who were more intent on attacking current policy than actually coming up with their own. An example of this is the bashing of the Iran deal by opponents, despite the fact that they didn’t come up with any other alternatives to the deal. Ted Cruz embodied this approach, saying: “If I was to be elected as president the first thing that I would do in office is rip to shreds this catastrophic deal.” The inability of the Republicans to refrain from bashing opponents long enough to present actual policy solutions to America’s problems sucks most of the enjoyment out of the debate.
The Democrat candidates discussed topics that were far more applicable to most Americans such as college, Wall Street reform and paid family leave. Republican candidates did the exact opposite, focusing on topics that did not affect the everyday consumer as much such as foreign policy, Planned Parenthood and immigration. Although the Democrat candidates did spend some time on Planned Parenthood, they spent significantly less time on it than did Republican candidates.
In an age when America is facing a multitude of complex challenges, voters need to be informed about how candidates plan to address the issues rather than what they don’t like about their opponents.