An Ignoble Experiment: D-Day

September 26, 2016

D-Day

Debate day is finally here. Tonight at 9pm EST Clinton, Trump, and Lester Holt will take the stage at Hofstra University in Long Island for the first of three presidential debates. In a world where 70 percent of one of the two candidate's claims have been deemed untrue, it's hard to know exactly what to expect from tonight's debate. The topics for tonight's debate are "Securing America," "Achieving Prosperity," and "America's Direction" so we can take a few guesses. Here's what you can expect to hear:

National Security: Trump will say he will "make America safe again." He won't. After all, this is the same candidate who believes the U.S. would be better off if other countries had nuclear weapons, is prominently featured in a terrorist recruiting video, brags about his ability to force the U.S. military to commit war crimes, and belittles our democratic allies while embracing strongmen such as Putin and Saddam Hussein.

Immigration: Trump kicked off his presidential bid calling Mexicans rapists and criminals. Since then, his hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric and his commitment to mass deportation have remained the centerpiece of his campaign. Trump's immigration policy would tear American families apart and have major economic consequences for our country—upwards of $4.7 trillion in lost GDP over 10 years.

Economy: Trump will say he will "make the economy great again." He won't do that either. Trump proposes large tax cuts for the wealthy that would jeopardize education, health care, and other middle-class investments, while raising taxes on some single parents. He's also proposed letting the U.S. default on its debt, which would be an economic disaster. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, proposes restoring basic fairness to our tax code, making job creation a priority, and boosting middle class wages through policies like increasing the federal minimum wage.

Working families: Trump will tout his version of a plan on child care and paid maternity leave. But having a plan is not the same as having a good plan, nor does it mean his plans will actually help working families. They won't. Like most of his proposals, his child care and paid maternity leave plans will benefit the wealthy few and do little for those who need it the most. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton has a comprehensive plan that would enable workers to take paid family and medical leave for the birth or adoption of child, to care for a seriously ill loved one, or their own illness, and a child care plan that will actually make child care affordable for working families.

Criminal justice and policing: Instead of proposing policies to build trust between communities of color and law enforcement, Trump has proposed a stop-and-frisk policy in Chicago because "it worked incredibly well" in New York City. Actually, NYC's stop-and-frisk was ruled unconstitutional and did little to stop crime. A national policy would likely alienate communities of color: Under stop-and-frisk, the NYPD disproportionately targeted black and Latino people.

Climate: We just lived through the hottest summer in recorded history, but even that hasn't been enough to make climate change a central subject this election. Weird right? We think so. Maybe the fact that extreme weather—made more extreme by climate change—has cost U.S. taxpayers $67 billion in the last 10 years will do it? But we're not convinced that even that will change the mind of a guy who has claimed, "You can't get hurt with extreme weather," and who's called climate change a "hoax."

Education: Trump has called for a big government takeover of local education systems. He wants to force states to repeal the Common Core (even though the federal government plays no role in it), and he would force 42 states to change their academic standards. He called for eliminating the Department of Education to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and would require states to spend $110 billion of their own money on a voucher scheme of his design, cutting $69.9 billion in federal funding from the schools that need it most. And he plans to override collective bargaining agreements with federal mandates on teacher compensation.

Higher education: Clinton has backed tuition-free public college for working families and universal free community college. She has also proposed options to help current borrowers with debt--a first three-month moratorium on student loan payments for borrowers to get on their feet and also the ability for borrowers to refinance student loans. Trump, for his part, has suggested that the government play no role in the student loan business, saying he would restore lending to private banks, locking students into a lending market with virtually no consumer protections. Also, Trump University.

WHAT'S TRENDING

Washington. On Friday a man shot and killed five people at a mall in Washington State. A suspect is in police custody after a manhunt on Friday. Authorities have said there is no indication of terrorism.

Cruz Control. This weekend, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) finally endorsed Donald Trump for president, despite having deemed him "utterly amoral" just months ago.

Agree to disagree. That's what Trump's new head of EPA transition is apparently doing with the 97 percent of scientists who believe in human-caused climate change. He's said climate change is "nothing to worry about."

What (independent) women want. In recent elections, women have cast four to seven million more votes than men, and more women than men have voted in every presidential election since 1980. About a third of women in the U.S. identify as Independents and here's what they want, according to a new American Women poll.

Not having a TV. Not an excuse not to watch tonight's debate. Twitter's got you covered.