We’re just under a month on the countdown until election day with SOMETHING.
Minnesota democratic governor Tim Walz and Ohio Republican senator JD Vance had a one and done debate, similar to the Presidential candidates, who also have only had one debate before voting begins in November. Both parties stayed respectful, even occasionally complimenting one another on their views and insights. However, of course, there were some conflicts on key issues that revealed the candidates’ ideology behind real-time events that stood out. Hours before the debate began, Iran attempted to attack Israel in an on-going regional war. The Moderator of the debate opened with a compelling question on the conflict in Iran and their ability to decipher what the best course of action would be. When asked if they would support a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran if they were responsible for that decision. Both Walz and Vance believe in retaliation, but in two completely different that left listeners concerned.
War – Israel and Iran
Walz: “Our allies matter. When our allies see Donald Trump turn towards Putin, turn towards North Korea; when you start see that type of fickleness around holding the coalitions together, we will stay committed. As the Vice President said today, we will protect our forces, and our allied forces, and there will be consequences.”
Vance: “As much as Governor Walz just accused Donald Trump of being an agent of chaos, Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world by establishing affective deterrents. Iran, who launched this attack, has received over 100 billion dollars in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration. It is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe. We should support our allies wherever they are when fighting the bad guys.”
Immigration
The U.S and Mexico border has been the topic of discussion for years. When Trump sat as President, it was no secret that his solutions for those illegally crossing the border was to build a wall that separates both countries. Both parties were asked about their views on mass deportation its effects on families that have been separated in the process.
Vance: “We have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris said that she wanted to undo all of Trumps border policies. 94 executive orders suspending deportations, decriminalizing illegal aliens, massively increasing the asylum fraud that exists in our system, that has opened the floodgates. A lot of fentanyl is coming into our country. Kamala Harris is letting fentanyl into our communities at record levels. We’ve got to reimplement Trump’s border policies, build the wall, reimplement deportations. We have 20-25 million illegal immigrants in the country, I think the first thing we do is start with the criminal migrants. About 1 million of those people have committed some form of crime in addition to crossing the border illegally. I think you start with deportations on those folks, then make it harder for illegal aliens to undercut American workers. Right now in this country we have 320,000 children that the Department of Homeland Security have effectively lost. Some of them have been sex trafficked, some are hopefully home with their families, some of them have been used as drug trafficking mules. The real family separation policy in this country is unfortunately Kamalah Harris’s wide open southern border.”
Walz: “Kamala Harris was the Attorney General of the largest border state, California. She’s the only person in this race who prosecuted transnational gangs for human trafficking and drug interventions. Most of us want to solve this. We have the fairest, and toughest bill on immigration that this nation has seen. It was crafted by a conservative senator from Oklahoma, James Lankford, he’s super conservative but a man of principle. Democrats and Republicans worked on this piece of legislation, the Border Patrol said this is what we need, and the Chamber of Commerce said ‘pass this thing’. Kamala Harris helped us get there. 1500 new border agents, detection for drugs, DOJ money to speed up judications, but as soon as it was about to pass, Donald Trump said no. Because it gives him a campaign issue. Donald Trump had four years to do this. He promised you, America, how easy it would be. ‘I will build you a big beautiful wall and Mexico will pay for it’. Less than 2% of that wall got built, and Mexico didn’t pay a dime.”
Blame Games – Gun Violence, Affordable Housing, Childcare, and Retirement
The issue of gun violence often goes hand in hand with the issue of gun owner rights.
It has been argued amongst civilians since the Columbine shooting that there needs to be more policies in place to help with gun control. Vance believes that Americans have the highest amount of mental health conditions that contribute to school shootings that are unfortunately fairly common in the States, and thinks we should focus on addressing that issue more aggressively. Walz believes that mental health shouldn’t be stigmatized, rather the access to weapons should be changed as a way to protect our second amendment.
Our current high cost of living has affected everyone in all tax brackets, especially in the last two years. Research shows there is a shortage of around 4 million homes that contribute to that problem directly. Vance blames Kamala’s ‘open border’ as the reason for us having more people than homes in this country. He believes since she is currently in office as Vice President, she should be actively solving the issue instead of having Walz speak on it. Vance believes the solution would be to use federal lands to build new homes and ensure illegal immigrants are massively deported in order to level the playing field. Walz countered that idea by pointing out that federal land should be preserved, not be used as a commodity. His solution involves investing in the structure of 3 million new homes, rebuilding and refurbishing existing homes, and offering better down payment assistance options that allots for working families to attain a home of their own. Housing tied into childcare and retirement during the debate as well. Both parties had very different ideas of how the American family can be sustained. Vance believing lower energy costs will lower the cost of homes, inevitably becoming more affordable for the working family who can, and should, turn to their families and neighbors for child care assistance as they too will then be able to afford to retire without fear of returning to work. Walz chastised the Trump administration for claiming that child care ‘isn’t that expensive’. He opposingly believes the solution to all of these problems are intertwined. Stating more homes being built creates affordable housing, affordable housing brings stability for consistent employment, which in turn allows a family to afford childcare.
It was a tough call on who is ‘for the people’ between Vance and Walz as they both spoke highly about family structure. It seems to be a tactic to pull on the heart strings of the public by relating to familial concerns, but that type of approach is expected when seeking the popularity vote. With only one debate scheduled, there wasn’t much space to cover the long list of issues that people want to hear them discuss. Both the DNC and RNC are making great effort to turn the polls in their favor during the final stretch of this election.
Early voting is October 21st – November 3rd.
Election day is November 5th.
