On Tuesday October 1st, Ohio Senator J.D Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz met to have their first and last debate before the most important election in world history. The vice presidential candidates surprisingly were able to keep on track when speaking and asking questions about each other’s policies. I will now analyze the top three questions debated as well as each candidate’s response and policy.
Climate change
J.D Vance responded to this question first saying both he and Donald Trump support clean air and clean water. However he has a different view which is superior to Tim Walz’s solution. While Tim Walz supports so-called “ innovations” to prevent “climate change” Vance wants to attack the issue causing the problem. He suggests bringing manufacturing back to the US to reduce carbon emissions. This is a great solution as the ratio of economic benefit to emissions output would decrease exponentially. Vance states “if we actually care about getting cleaner air and cleaner water, the best thing to do is to double down and invest in American workers and the American people. And unfortunately, Kamala Harris has done exactly the opposite.” If goods were produced in the US, less non-renewable resources would be used to create and produce the products, yielding a stronger economy and less pollution. Vance attacks the issue at the source while Walz suggests promoting electric vehicles and alternative sources of energy that have proven to damage the environment in the long run. This is simply a distraction to make it appear the Democratic Party is taking action on climate change so they can continue to work with China. They continue to dump billions of dollars to produce alternative forms of energy, yet these alternative forms of energy are being created in China continuing to fuel the root cause of this problem. Vance says “The real issue is that if you’re spending hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of American taxpayer money on solar panels that are made in China, number one, you’re going to make the economy dirtier.”Although this is one of the main issues Tim Walz and the Democrats are standing for, they seem to have a narrow minded view of the issue, making it worse. J.D Vance wins this debate topic for his holistic view of the issue.
Winner: J.D Vance
Immigration
Vance argues that the border must be secured immediately: “[Harris] opened the floodgates. And what it’s meant is that a lot of fentanyl is coming into our country.” We are losing too many American people to fentanyl being trafficked through the wide open border. This issue is very close to J.D’s heart as his mother struggled with addiction. He doesn’t want cities to be enveloped with drugs that kill people due to the poor policies that have been put in place the past four years. Tim Walz continues to deny there is any increase in drugs entering the US. He hyper focused on just one state claiming there is a “30% [fentanyl] decrease in Ohio.” He comes up with no clear solution and focuses on one state while there are many other states where their crisis still exists. Vance states “What we need to do at the southern border is just empowering law enforcement to do their job.” J.D Vance will work with the border patrol agents and empower them and provide them with the tools to do their job. Walz continues to say what they did in the past rather than talking about plans for the future. Additionally, Kamala Harris evidently has not improved the border crisis over these past couple years as border czar, making it understandably difficult for Tim Walz to win on this point. J.D Vance has a clear, proven course of action that will take time, but work.
Winner: J.D Vance
Gun control
J.D Vance states “the gross majority, close to 90%, and some of the statistics I’ve seen of the gun violence in this country is committed with illegally obtained firearms. We know that thanks to Kamala Harris’s open border, we’ve seen a massive influx in the number of illegal guns run by the Mexican drug cartel.” One of the solutions he presents is to secure the border to prevent guns from entering , He seems to not have a clear plan for protecting schools from shootings. J.D Vance says he and the president would work closely with local law informants to get more security personnel into schools. He believes that having security visible will combat gun violence. Vance was also criticized for saying in the debate that school doors need to be stronger and “lock better.” This point should not be dismissed because this could seriously reduce threats especially at West Morris and high schools across the nation. While security personnel at West Morris closely monitor said doors, there can always be a better system in place and I believe this example supports Vance’ claim. An example is there was a door latch that was broken allowing a door to swing open freely leading to the gym last year, supporting Vance’ claim that doors can lock better in schools. Tim Walz states he believes it is a bad thing for schools to look secure stating “Do you want your school’s hardened to look like a fort?” This is not a bad thing, it will detour the intruder. This last topic will be a tie as I do believe banning assault weapons, promoted by Walz, will reduce public shootings in some shape or form. However, if they are continued to be obtained illegally, then it will not solve the problem. This problem should be attacked from both ends.
Winner: tie
