Decision 2016: Reality TV Worth Watching?

Scott Rotondo

Wednesday night we were all treated to the third and, mercifully, last presidential debate for this election cycle. The audience at UNLV got to witness first hand a couple of weak candidates spend more time jousting with each other and selling us on how bad the other candidate was, rather than presenting those pesky, annoying things called facts. For Donald Trump, he needed to not just hold his own but to score some definitive knockout blows in this debate. From my vantage point, while he did make some good points, it was far less than what was necessary in order to bridge the gap with Hillary Clinton. In fact, after this debate showing, Republicans down the ballot have reason to worry, as Trump could very well be the albatross that brings down not only the GOP hopes of recapturing the Oval Office, but in fact loses them their present majority in the House and, with it, Paul Ryan’s job as Speaker.

---

---

Some of the highlights, as observed from my couch last night:

• Second Amendment - Trump boasts of his NRA endorsement and that it was the quickest that they’d ever endorsed; this would be great except that the NRA seems to be more interested in fundraising than actually, you know, defending the Second Amendment. Clinton said, for the whole world to see, that she does believe in the individual right to bear arms. This, to me, is a very big deal and will be impossible to ‘walk back’ afterwards. Many on the left feel the Second amendment applies only to well-regulated militias, but what Clinton said is much closer to my personal interpretation.
• Roe v. Wade – Here we have what I consider to be Trump slamming the door on his own election hopes. The candidates were asked their stance on Roe. Trump plainly said, that he is pro-life (and he has every right to feel that way) and that he would appoint pro-life judges that would overturn Roe v Wade, saying “and then it would go back to the states”. Regardless of your own personal stance on abortion, Roe v. Wade is the law of the land and to say that you would actively appoint justices that would overturn it, has to have killed Trump’s chances with women voters. Additionally, lets’ assume that President Trump did exactly what he just said: can you imagine the appeals and then the actions brought forward in all 50 states? What a tremendous waste of time and money, at a time when, by Trump’s own words, the economy is anemic.
• Immigration – Trump stuck to his wall building, and Hillary said she was “for border control” but seemed to lack specifics. She also highlighted the human costs of separating families where some are US citizens and some are here illegally, to which Trump produced a valid counterpoint: The Obama administration has, in actuality, deported more people than the Bush Administration did. The disappointing thing from my perspective, is this: neither candidate produced an actionable plan which would make it easier to obtain US citizenship, thereby alleviating a good part of the illegal immigrant issue.
• “Bigly”? Trump used this phrase a lot and I hope that it was slurring the words “big league”. I’m not the Grammar Police but I do expect my candidates to have a workable command of the English language.
• Wallace asked Clinton pointedly about one of her speeches, which had been leaked me WikiLeaks where she was quoted as envisioning a “hemispheric common market with open borders” and instead of walking those comments back, she focused on the alleged Russian ties to the leaked documents. To me, this was a very weak response from someone who we may be entrusting the next 4 or 8 years to.
• Economy – eventually, both candidates meandered to the economy, which should have been front and center in not only this debate, but all three. Clinton didn’t seem to have real specifics aside from “make the wealthy pay”, and even stated that her policies would not add, in her words, “not one penny” to the national debt. I find this extremely hard to believe. Given our present deficit, even just keeping the government at its present size necessitates us borrowing money in order to fund it. Trump was more of the same, promising “massive tax cuts” and “bringing offshore taxes back into the country” – as if there were some way to coerce companies to do this.  
• Clinton foundation – this was, to me, a valid criticism. Clinton stated earlier in the debate that she would appoint justice who would stand with our LGBTQ community and I personally agree, this is the right thing to do. But, the Clinton Foundation accepts money from countries like Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality can be punished by death. How do you reconcile that? Trump called on her to return those funds; time will tell if that does happen.
• Taxes – I give them both failing grades on this. Trump fails because he has not released his tax returns, and transparency is important. Not that I think anything groundbreaking would emerge from the returns, but in the court of public opinion, he looks like a man with something to hide. I gave Clinton a fail too, for stating that Trump has not paid his taxes. As an accounting professional, there is a very big difference between limiting your liability and not paying your taxes. For instance, I donate clothes and other items to charity every year. These are deductible on my tax return, lowering the tax that I am obligated to pay. That is not “not paying my taxes”, that is limiting my liability. If I run a business and it shows a loss, I can carry forward that loss for a certain amount of time to offset any gains. This is in place to help entrepreneurs recover form bad years. Now, after the return is finished, should I not pay, then yes that is tax evasion. Again, without Trump releasing his returns we do not know for sure, but we cannot say definitively that he has not paid his taxes.
• Election results – Trump essentially said that we will find out on election night if he accepts the results. This was more than a little chilling, what exactly will he have to ‘accept’ if the currently projected electoral College landslide ensues?

 
 All in all it was a fitting coda to the schedule of debates. But I am still left with that feeling, like when you go out to dinner and feel the meal was overpriced, and the service wasn’t that good – is that really it? Are these the best people we could possible come up with to lead our nation? Here’s hoping that going forward we, as voters, pay more attention to politics than the sports and reality TV. If we can do that, we will have a much better crop of candidates to choose from.

---

Read More 990WBOB

• Monday's Musical Spotlight: Marielle Jakobsons' "Undone" 
  
• URI Rams Land in Top 25 in Initial ESPN Hoops Ranking
• REVIEW: Sgt. Baker and The Clones Debut Album Delivers Tasty Sonic Stew
• Cranston Police Strapping In
• Slut Shaming: An American Tradition?