On the night of September 10, 2024, over 67 million Americans turned on the most recent presidential debate between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. The debate, an opportunity for both candidates to engage with their supporters and explain their policies and proposals, came across more as a fiery feud between two enemies, a far cry from debates prior.
Polarization in Presidential Debates: 2012 vs 2024
One cannot help but notice that every time either candidate spoke, the other candidate seemed to scoff, deride, or simply refuse to understand the perspective of the other candidate. Trump continually dismissed Harris’s ideas, entering the defensive and finding every way to make himself favorable. Harris highlighted her discontent with Trump using her facial expressions, reprimanding his claims and finding every way to upset him. The clear expressions filled with contempt from Harris and the defensive, shocking claims from Trump highlighted the debate and gave many Americans a Tuesday night laugh leading to a slew of new – and funny – TikTok sounds. However, one detail about the American government rings clear: Democrats and Republicans are agreeing less and less as the country grows more and more divided by its parties.
Just twelve years ago in the 2012 presidential debate between Romney and Obama, tensions between the two candidates were much less intense. A friendly handshake began the debate before both presidents gave kind salutations to each other before starting the first topic: creating new jobs. Obama proposed a greater emphasis on improving education, energy production, and supporting small businesses. He also claimed that Romney is planning on cutting taxes on the rich. Romney refuted that he did not propose taxing the rich, but instead, he also placed a greater emphasis on energy independence and supporting small businesses. The candidates later came to note that both had similar ideas in terms of creating new jobs, with the only dispute involving the differences in the tax plans they had. There was respectful, yet sharp and effective, disagreement within the debate of 2012. Both candidates could clearly state their policies and opinions, yet still disagree with one another with mutual respect.
Fast-forward to 2024, Kamala and Trump shook hands and began the debate’s first topic: the cost of living. On Kamala’s second argument, she already begins to note every single flaw Donald Trump has in terms of the economy and the cost of living, stating, “Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression…worst public health epidemic in a century… [and] the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. And what we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess…I’m going to tell you all, in this debate tonight, you’re going to hear from the same old, tired playbook, a bunch of lies, grievances and name-calling” (Hoffman). These statements were intended to upset Trump and weaken him as the debate continues, as there is a certain hostility in these remarks. Trump later bashes Harris for her ideas, claiming “And just to finish off, she doesn’t have a plan. She copied Biden’s plan. And it’s like four sentences, like run-Spot-run. Four sentences that are just, ‘oh, we’ll try and lower taxes.’ She doesn’t have a plan” (Hoffman). The whole debate continues like this, with Harris’s disrespectful remarks, paired with Trump’s insults and consistent, invalid boasting.
What happened? What caused these stark differences in political debates in just twelve years?
Polarization throughout the years
Pictured below (provided by the Pew Research Center) is a graph displaying the ideological alignment of Democrats and Republicans. In 1994, Democrats and Republicans tended to land in the middle of the political value scale. The medians are close, with lots of Republicans having liberal values and lots of Democrats having conservative values. In 2004, this remained true. It even seems that Republican ideology was closer to the center at the time, showing both parties were even closer in ideology. But by 2014, ideologies drastically changed. The median ideology of Democrats and Republicans skewed drastically farther to their respective areas, with the majority of Democrats being more liberal and the majority of Republicans being more conservative. There is also significantly less overlap between the two parties in ideology (signified by less purple in the 2014 diagram). This only seems to get worse as people continue to scoff and glower at those who are on the opposite side of the political spectrum, and people consistently access their party’s dominance within the federal government.
All of this is not to say that bipartisanship does not exist. In 2023 alone, about 95.89% of bills passed were passed with bipartisan support (meaning at least one Republican voted ‘yes’). And since 2020, at least 90% of bills passed with bipartisan support. There is certainly still value in proper debate and consensus within our country.
There are also plenty of key examples of bipartisanship within the history of our nation. For example, in 1945 Senator Vandenberg suggested that the US become a prominent member of NATO and the UN during WWII, saying he did not believe nations like America could not remain isolationist and prosper at the same time. The US would need to lead the globe and make decisions for the international community during wars. This proposal was supported by the whole nation, both Democrats and Republicans alike, and was very successful for the nation. Thus, bipartisan support leads to better solutions.
The consequences of political polarization
The issue now is America hasn’t recently had a significant act of bipartisanship such as Vandenberg’s. Instead, our society is recording more and more hostility between the two parties. In any argument at any scale, new ideas are formed by staying open-minded and hearing out the other side. By combining the good aspects of both sides, you make a new idea that will benefit the majority. Yet politicians and parties have seemed to forget this, as debates and public speaking nowadays highlight the extreme ends of the political spectrum and focus on weakening the opposing side, rather than respectful discussion between disagreeing sides. Obviously, Harris and Trump are in a race to win, and showing their stronger attributes was necessary in the debate. Nevertheless, hostility does not equate to strength, and the candidates in the debate twelve years ago understood that. The art of compromise seems to be fading as political polarization increases. Thus, we are left with a political landscape full of animosity and unproductive legislation.
Political polarization needs to be mitigated.
Works Cited
Hubbard, Kaia. “How Many People Watched the Presidential Debate? Ratings Are in for ABC’s Trump-Harris Showdown.” Cbsnews.com, CBS News, 12 Sept. 2024, www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-harris-debate-abc-ratings-2024/.
“Transcript and Audio: First Obama-Romney Debate.” NPR.org, npr, 3 Oct. 2012, www.npr.org/2012/10/03/162258551/transcript-first-obama-romney-presidential-debate.
Hoffman, Riley. “Harris-Trump Presidential Debate Transcript.” ABC News, ABC News, 11 Sept. 2024, abcnews.go.com/Politics/harris-trump-presidential-debate-transcript/story?id=113560542. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024.
“Nearly 96 Percent of Bills Passed in 2024 Received Bipartisan Support.” Washington Senate Democrats, 22 Mar. 2024, senatedemocrats.wa.gov/blog/2024/03/22/nearly-96-percent-of-bills-passed-in-2024-received-bipartisan-support/. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024.
Bipartisan Policy Center. “History of Bipartisanship | Bipartisan Policy Center.” Bipartisanpolicy.org, bipartisanpolicy.org/history-of-bipartisanship/. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024.
Images:
Lazarus, Lily. “How Kamala Harris’ Face Told the Story of the Debate.” Google.com, 2024, www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fhow-kamala-harris-face-told-the-story-of-the-debate-with-donald-trump&psig=AOvVaw0n6-QSTa8nHq4Ry1kZeC3l&ust=1727229107602000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBQQjRxqFwoTCIjOmP272ogDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024.
Pew Research Center. “Political Polarization in the American Public.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 12 June 2014, www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024.
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