Who Won the U.S. Presidential Debate?

Efforts to restore democracy to the United States, a troubled, oil-rich former British colony with a history of political violence, may have suffered a serious setback this week after yet another chaotic presidential debate, some Americanists say.

However, it got off to a less than stellar start. The three moderate candidates in the race – Jill Stein, Cornel West and Chase Oliver – were barred from participating. Instead, the contest pitted the two frontrunners: former President Donald Trump, the candidate of the far-white Republican Party, widely thought to be the political wing of white-Christianist militias, and Kamala Harris, the current vice president, who led a palace coup two months ago that forced the ageing, unpopular incumbent, President Joe Biden, to abandon his quest for re-election.

During the debate, moderators drawn from the US media, once considered one of the most vibrant in the region, struggled to get Trump and Harris to answer questions about their views and policies, and the session at times degenerated into name-calling, fearmongering and outright lying. The two candidates traded insults, incited anti-China sentiment, differed over women’s rights and whether the country is facing an invasion by hordes of violent, pet-eating criminal immigrants, and agreed on backing the genocidal regime in Israel. There was little articulation by either candidate of a coherent vision for the country.

Now with Americans watching the spectacle, unlikely to be impressed by the quality of leadership delivered by democracy, there are fears the country could resume its slide into autocracy. Before the debate, polls showed the two candidates locked in a dead heat. After the debate, the data show they are in fact deadlocked in a race to the bottom. It is indisputable that voters who watched the debate came away disillusioned by the choices they face. In a poll conducted immediately after the event, only 45 percent say they were left with a positive view of Harris, who many believe won the debate. Trump fared worse – only seen positively by 39 percent. In a sign of just how concerned elite Americans are about the declining faith in democracy, Taylor Swift, a local celebrity, took to social media immediately after the debate to endorse Harris and urge her fellow citizens not to give up hope but instead do research and make a choice.

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