As you probably know already, Hofstra University is scheduled to host a Presidential Debate for the third consecutive presidential election cycle. Hearing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton attack each other countless times has sparked a particular interest in me to see things from a perspective beyond just an ordinary citizen. For this reason, I have decided to be a volunteer for this momentous occasion; I was been placed in operations. After our training session the other day, there are many reasons why I’m excited to be a part of this historic event.
Potential history to be made.
On one side, Trump has led what is perhaps the most bizarre campaign we have ever seen. On another, despite allegations for her own shortcomings, Clinton has the chance to become the first woman to ever serve as our country’s president. This intrigues me because as much progress as we have made towards combatting prejudice in our society, we still have a long way to go and other nations, such as Chile and Costa Rica, have had a lot more diverse people (including women) serve as their presidents or equivalent leaders. Making things more interesting is that Trump’s actions, both now and throughout his life, have perpetuated these biases.
Both campaigns are riddled with flaws.
The other unique thing about the Trump vs. Clinton battle is the theory that none of them could defeat any other candidate in recent history. Both of them have lied numerous times. Although a lot of people have denounced Trump’s claims as without any substance behind them, the Washington Post recently said that Clinton’s voters aren’t as passionate about voting for her as Trump’s voters are about voting for him. As big of a mistake as Clinton made in handling the top secret emails, Trump’s rhetoric against Latin Americans, Muslims, etc. would have derailed anybody else’s campaign. It was also alarming to some that he reorganized his campaign staff to include former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who was accused of sexual harassment before, and his current campaign CEO Stephen Bannon, who promoted anti-Muslim extremism. In either case, plenty of voters will be voting against one candidate rather than for the other.
Unprecedented Debate host record.
Although this isn’t the record for most Presidential debates ever — that honor belongs to Washington University (St. Louis), who hosts the second debate — we’ve never before had a debate occur at the same location for three consecutive election cycles. As the training video said, the debate was a major selling point to students who worked at past debates. There were even those who said that having the debate at Hofstra inspired them to vote on Election Day.
This will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Ultimately, I was one of over 800 applicants to be selected to work at this big event. As students at other schools are making plans for the team’s next football game, the whole campus will be tuned in on Debate Day with TVs all over campus, watch parties throughout & of course, for those lucky to get selected in the lottery, to see the event unfold first-hand. Hempstead Turnpike will be shut down, classes will be cancelled & regardless of how this election turns out, this debate will go down as one of the craziest we have ever seen.
