First Presidential Debate Highlights: Stop-and-frisk and the TPP

While there has been plenty of drama to keep the media outlets busy, there’s also substance to the presidential candidates’ platforms. Whether the substance is toxic or benign is up to us as the American people to decide.

Donald Trump on Law and Order

In the first debate, Donald Trump defended his stance on stop-and-frisk policies as a necessary measure to enforce law and order. He cited examples of violence and homicides among gang members in Chicago and New York as the primary rationale for using stop-and-frisk.

Within the last decade, there was a Supreme Court ruling that set new rules for the measure. Many people, including Lester Holt, are concerned that stop-and-frisk is ineffective and that it’s an excuse for racial profiling. And there is a possibility that if Trump were president, he would take decision-making power out of local hands and enforce these policies at a federal level.

Because I value privacy and the avoidance of a totalitarian regime (i.e. a 1984 scenario), I strongly believe that you should oppose Trump on this issue. We sacrificed privacy with the Patriot Act, and based on the Snowden leaks, it is clear that the NSA has abused its power. Similar problems and abuses would arise from federal stop-and-frisk policies.

Hillary Clinton on the TPP

In the debate, Trump pointed out that Hillary Clinton called the Trans-Pacific Partnership the gold standard of trade deals, which she did in fact say. However, now she is flip-flopping by saying that she does not support the TPP. Bernie Sanders gained Millennial and blue collar support when pointing out Clinton’s questionable trade record. Over the years, Clinton has been on both sides of the trade debate depending on the particular countries involved.

As my close friends know, I strongly oppose the TPP. It has been negotiated privately by politicians offering extremely limited transparency. It is important to point out Clinton’s lack of authenticity regarding her opposition to the TPP and how dangerous the TPP could be for American workers. We have already suffered significant job losses to China due to counterfeit goods and unfair trade policies, and there’s no reason to continue that trend with other Southeast Asian nations.