Students gathered in Stowe Hall to watch the first 2016 presidential debate on Monday, September 26.
The watch party was hosted by Lipscomb’s political science department, Lipscomb Democrats, Lipscomb’s College Republicans, Lipscomb’s League of United Latin American Citizens and Young Americans for Freedom.
Throughout the night, many opinions were represented through attendance, phrases printed on T-shirts and occasionally voiced through a cheer or a clap. Although this election is particularly polarizing in terms of party preference and ideology, Lipscomb College of Business alum and founder of the consulting firm the Millennial View Trevor Gormley said the most important aspect of this election for him is in the numbers.
“One of the biggest issues that the country has to face is growth,” Gormley said. “From an economic standpoint we are in one of the slowest growth periods ever in history. As a person in business and finance, that’s the biggest issue for me.”
For sophomore law, justice and society (LJS) major Mason Borneman, his main concerns for the next president revolve around race relations.
“I believe the biggest issue is race relations because I think it trickles down into so many other issues whether that be policing which is obviously a huge issue right now for us, education and equal access to that no matter what community you come from and gun violence,” Borneman said. “I think that’s a crucial issue that definitely has a lot of appeal to race because when it comes to the amount of African Americans shot and the amount of African Americans incarcerated due to gun violence or violence in general, it’s definitely not proportionate, and I think that’s an issue.”
Freshman and fellow LJS major Kalyn Siebert cites violence as her vote winning issue in this election.
“Both candidates would agree that it [violence] is an issue, but how they want to fight it is really different,” Siebert said. “It worries me with Hillary’s background has some things that are a little bit iffy for me. I know Trump is not perfect either. He says some stupid stuff. He wasn’t my ideal candidate for the Republican Party, but I do believe that she’s been in the system for a while now and she has a track record, and it just makes me nervous that she’s actually broken the law that she is ‘fighting for.’”
While Gormley is torn between Trump and the Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, Gormley can still agree with one candidate that made it to the debate stage.
“I think the tax policy specifically of Donald Trump is one of the biggest things that I’m leaning towards because it does allow very wealthy people to invest their money freely without having some bombarding tax system on capital gains,” Gormley said. “He does bring up good tax plans as far as cutting taxes and raising taxes on places like Mexico and China.”
When asked who won the debate, Borneman replied, “Hands down Hillary.”
“She talks about policy. I think if you’re going to be president, you have to have policy; you have to have concrete issues and concrete solutions ready to be talked about,” Borneman said. “Only one candidate has that this year.”
For Siebert, declaring a winner was not so easy.
“I’m for Trump, but he did not do that well,” Siebert said. “He didn’t answer any of our questions very specifically which I’m looking for in him because he hasn’t done that quite yet, and I thought Hillary didn’t really do it either.”
Regardless of your party preference, Gormley, Borneman and Siebert said that the only way to make sure your ideas are represented on the next debate stage is to research the candidates, vote and make your voice heard.