IID: Kamala Harris Would Be A Worse President Than Donald Trump
Waiting for the next argument from the instigator.
Round will be automatically forfeited in:
- Publication date
- Last updated date
- Type
- Rated
- Number of rounds
- 3
- Time for argument
- One week
- Max argument characters
- 10,000
- Voting period
- One month
- Point system
- Multiple criterions
- Voting system
- Open
- Minimal rating
- 1,489
STANCES:
PRO shall only argue that Kamala Harris will be a worse president than Donald Trump
CON shall only argue that Kamala Harris will NOT be a worse president than Donald Trump
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DEFINITIONS:
All legal terms shall first be defined from The Law's Legal Dictionary, available here:
https://dictionary.thelaw.com/
All other terms not covered by The Law's Legal Dictionary shall be defined from Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary, available here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/
Specific definitions for debate:
Kamala Harris: the person named Kamala Harris who is the chosen nominee of the Democrat party for the 2024 election.
Donald Trump: The person named Donald Trump who is the chosen nominee of the Republican Party for the 2024 election.
Worse: Resulting in a lower net negative quality of life for all American citizens and legal immigrants combined.
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RULES:
1. Burden of Proof is shared.
2. No Ignoratio Elenchis.
3. No trolls.
4. Forfeiting one round = auto-loss.
The evidence of this is self-evident. The State of the Union, which is designed for the general populace to understand, of George Washington is much more advanced than today's college textbooks, for example.
The primary culprit of this is government intervention into the schools. [3] The government, today and historically, censors what can and cannot be taught, even at the college level, through funding, legislation, and grants.
This creates a toxic learning environment where freedom of thought and research, the bedrock on which education rests and progresses, is stifled, leaving behind a legacy of stupider schools and stupider people
Kamala Harris wants to further this by making the government the ONLY beneficiary of most State Universities. This would cause bankruptencies of private universities and colleges, which would lead to larger strains in unemployment welfare, and a mass unemployment situation among college professors who will be unable to gain employment due to a shortage of schools. To counteract this, the Federal Reserve will either print more money, which will lead to inflation for ALL Americans and further devalue of America's currency, [5] or taxes will rise...
In contrast, President Trump wants to abolish the Department of Education entirely... The Department of Education costs 224 billion dollars in taxes each year, [6] additionally, it censors and stifles research and intellectual curiosity, as previously explained.
Price controls are dangerous because they distort the market and remove the most important signal for financial decision-making: the price.
Con has erroneously stated that tariffs are always bad for an economy, saying, without evidence:
the reality of that is Tariffs end up hurting the U.S. citizens by raising prices.
When the government imposes a tariff, it redistributes resources away from consumers and unprotected industries toward the protected industry. [1]
The most common way for countries to fight back against tariffs—aside from levying retaliatory tariffs—is to subsidize the domestic industries that have been hit. [2]
According to the Washington Post, Trump has publicly made upwards of 30,000 misleading or false claims.
- The Washington Post purposely buried the proof of Joe Biden's bribery [3]
- The Washington Post grossly understated the amount of crimes committed by illegal migrants [4]
- The Washington Post peddled misinformation on hurricanes and climate change [5]
- The Washington Post falsely portrayed the death of Michael Brown [6]
- The Washington Post repeatedly botched fact checks on Trump's 2019 State of the Union [7]
This evidence is documented in a 2014 study published by the journal Electoral Studies. Based on survey data and election records, the authors of this paper found that the number of non-citizens who voted illegally in the 2008 election ranged “from just over 38,000 at the very minimum to nearly 2.8 million at the maximum.” Their “best estimate” is that 1.2 million or “6.4% of non-citizens actually voted.” [8]
Based on current population data from the Census Bureau and voting data from previous elections, Just Facts has conducted a study to estimate the number of votes illegally cast by non-citizens in the battleground states of the 2020 election. The results—documented in this spreadsheet—show that such fraudulent activities netted Joe Biden the following extra votes in these tightly contested states:
- Arizona: 51,081 ± 17,689
- Georgia: 54,950 ± 19,025
- Michigan: 22,585 ± 7,842
- Nevada: 22,021 ± 7,717
- North Carolina: 46,218 ± 16,001
- Pennsylvania: 32,706 ± 11,332
- Wisconsin: 5,010 ± 1,774 [9]
As a result, health insurers found their insured population was in poor health and very expensive to cover. The low premiums insurance companies were required to charge to risky individuals did not cover the cost of care. Health insurers are leaving the individual market because of poor financial performance. The average medical loss ratio has risen to nearly 100 percent in recent years. Prior to the ACA, the average medical loss ratio in the non-group market was closer to 80 percent. (The medical loss ratio is the percentage of premiums an insurer spends on claims and expenses.) When insurance companies exit the market, consumers are left with few options and higher prices.For example, Anthem recently pulled out of Virginia, citing financial losses. Humana left Tennessee, leaving 40,000 people without a single health insurer. In Iowa, Medica is the last remaining health insurer. Medica announced it was likely to leave the market in 2018. [10]
American higher education is a perfect example. In the 1960s, the total budget for all U.S. colleges and universities was about $7 billion; in the early 1990s, largely because of massive state and federal funding increases, it surpassed $170 billion. Yet tens of thousands of college seniors do not know when Columbus sailed to the New World, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, or why the Civil War was fought. Businesses rightly complain that they must reeducate college graduates in such basic academic skills as grammar, spelling, and practical math. . .Why have college costs gone up? One reason is because Washington, D.C., is heavily subsidizing tuitions through federal grants and loans. This leaves colleges and universities free to jack up their prices. Who cares, after all, what tuition is at Harvard University, when nearly two-thirds of its undergraduates receive, financial assistance? [15]
Consider a simple model. There is a total of $100 in the entire economy; $50 is currently being spent on Commodity A and $50 on Commodity B. If the price of A were to increase by 20 percent, then purchasing the same units of A would cost $60. That would leave only $40 with which to purchase B. . .For the increased price of one or many products not to be offset by reduced demand for others, new dollars must enter the economy. This is the only way it is possible to spend more on A and go on spending the same or more on everything else. . .New dollars can only be created permanently by the Federal Reserve. The reason prices have steadily risen over the past 111 years is because the Fed has constantly increased the supply of dollars over that period. [16]
As an opening point of rebuttal, I would like to call to attention that my opponent did not make a case for why Kamala Harris would be a better President than Trump. Because of this, the debate must automatically default to mde, since my opponent did not follow the debate prompt. This is unlike what I did when I compared and contrasted the two candidates and showed why Trump was better. That being said, here is my mandatory yet unneeded rebuttal since my opponent did not fulfill their side of the debate prompt, and I must adhere to the debate rules of not forfeiting rounds.
Con has erroneously stated that tariffs are always bad for an economy, saying, without evidence:the reality of that is Tariffs end up hurting the U.S. citizens by raising prices.
This could not be further from the truth in today's non-free-market global economy. Multiple economists have raised a warning flag about the uncompetitiveness of American products overseas due to global protectionist tariffs on American-made goods. This is simply and succinctly explained by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation:
To protect American businesses and jobs, the experts have spoken loud and clear, either force all countries to remove their tariffs on American goods, and violate their national sovereignty and engage in colonialism in the process, or impose tariffs on all foreign goods to keep American goods competitive and preferred, thus protecting American jobs and companies from going bankrupt.
In addition to their misunderstanding of the economy, this same misunderstanding is given to the journalistic process and fact checking. My opponent states:According to the Washington Post, Trump has publicly made upwards of 30,000 misleading or false claims.However, The Washington Post has a very open history of being a publication that peddles both misinformation and disinformation regularly.
My opponent also is peddling disinformation about the reliability and safety of the 2020 election. Studies have repeatedly found that illegal migrants vote by the millions in U.S. Elections, as Just Facts, a non-partisan think tank cited by colleges and educational institutions writes:
The Affordable Care Act has completely upended and destroyed the not only peoples' health, but also the healthcare sector. The American Institute for Economic Research explains it best: (see opponents argument for direct quote)Increases in the amount of government involvement in the health sector would simply exacerbate these issues and drive worse and worse coverage going forward for ALL Americans, unlike what my opponent inaccurately claims. Once again, Trump's policies of repealing the ACA are the preferred ones.
Round 2 Sources:
SOURCES:
[1] https://taxfoundation.org/blog/import-tariffs-affect-exports/
[2] https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-are-tariffs#chapter-title-0-8
[3] https://www.justfactsdaily.com/washington-post-buried-proof-of-joe-bidens-bribery
[4] https://www.justfactsdaily.com/the-washington-post-grossly-understates-the-crime-rate-of-illegal-immigrants
[5] https://www.justfactsdaily.com/the-washington-posts-slander-on-hurricanes-and-climate-change
[6] https://www.justfactsdaily.com/washington-post-misportrays-the-death-of-michael-brown
[7] https://www.justfactsdaily.com/wash-post-repeatedly-botches-fact-check-of-trumps-state-of-the-union-address
[8] https://www.justfactsdaily.com/substantial-numbers-of-non-citizens-vote-illegally-in-u-s-elections
[9] https://www.justfactsdaily.com/quantifying-illegal-votes-cast-by-non-citizens-in-the-battleground-states-of-the-2020-presidential-election
[10] https://www.aier.org/article/government-intervention-in-health-insurance-falls-short/
[11] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1718793115
[12] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289607000463
[13] https://www.thirteen.org/openmind-archive/education/the-dumbing-down-of-america/
[14] https://fee.org/articles/americans-are-woefully-uneducated-about-basic-history/
[15] https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/how-government-funding-is-destroying-american-higher-education/
[16] https://mises.org/mises-wire/feds-fiat-money-real-cause-price-inflation
I am interested in seeing how this debate goes. I hope to see more arguments on both sides.
The polls are within the margins of error. With the difference between the two being less than 3% we can't claim the polls are saying Kamala will win.
Even so, the polls have been consistently wrong since 2016.
Also, polls here even on national average show that support for Kamala is increasing, support for Trump decreasing.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/
The poll you have shown also shows Kamala winning. It is more likely that people want Kamala, not Trump.
One poll doesn't equate truth. Polls are notoriously off. The aggregate data for all the polls we have shows a race within most polls' margins of error.
https://www.realclearpolling.com/
Yes, he is.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4846433-harris-leading-trump-by-7-points-poll/amp/
"Trump is losing by 6 percentage points"
No he isn't:
https://www.realclearpolling.com/
Cool, thanks!
"Resulting in a lower net negative quality of life for all American citizens and legal immigrants combined."
That pretty clearly draws attention to anything that affects American citizens and legal immigrants directly as the ones that matter most. I agree it's not just economic (don't think I ever said it was just economic, could be wrong), but it narrows it on the who and the where rather than the what.
"The short of it is that popular consensus doesn't mean the best choice"
Actually, popular choice is the only proper choice, since there is no other way to determine what is best.
"Trump isn't losing badly in the polls. The percentages are almost all within the margin of error for the polls themselves."
Trump is losing by 6 percentage points. Margin of error is meaningless because it goes in both directions.
Quality of life was never defined as solely economic means in the debate because it is a measure of ones life getting better or worse.
It appears you would have accidentally boxed yourself in inadvertently had you accepted the debate.
I agree that there should be limits, I just wouldn't want to limit the lines of argumentation one could make in a debate about which person would be a worse president, at least not in this way. I think part of the strength of having a debate like this is in the discussion of what makes someone better for the role, which should include everything a president does as opportunities to make a point, but necessarily does include weighing certain aspects of the job differently depending on the side. I personally love a solid weighing calculus because it requires the debaters to convince the voters of what matters more, rather than just setting a definition that restricts access to certain points.
All debates have limits, though, by nature. Why would Americans nit consider their own wellbeing primarily when considering the best President?
Do we demand of Guatemala and Germany to vote based on what makes American citizens' lives better? Of course not! Because it is the government of their countries. It is their prerogative to choose leadership in their best interest as it is ours to choose leadership our best interest.
*shrug* your choice I guess. I'm not saying that would be an argument I'd take up personally, I'm just not fond of setting up a definition that limits the scope of the debate in that way.
done.
It is my debate, after all 😂
If you want to debate whether Karris or Trump are better for, say, Guatemalans or Germans, then that is your prerogative.
But, to be clear, Germans and Guatemalans do not vote for President unless they are American citizens or somehow manage to fool the vote clerks at the polls or with absentee ballots...
Trump isn't losing badly in the polls. The percentages are almost all within the margin of error for the polls themselves.
Also, most people voted for Biden in 2020 but wanted Trump back by large numbers in 2024 because they believed were wrong.
The short of it is that popular consensus doesn't mean the best choice.
I’d love to accept if it wasn’t for the minimum rating.
Trump is losing badly in polls. Obviously, most people dont think Kamala is worse for quality of life.
This depends on what "quality of life" is. Most people wouldnt say Trump increased their quality of life.
See, to me, that looks like an argument for why certain tasks taken on by the President should be deemed paramount. I understand why you'd argue that. I just don't love that you would restrict your opponent's ability to argue about tasks outside that scope rather than just argue in the debate that they are necessarily outweighed.
Here is the way I see it:
The U.S. Constitution says America is for "We The People"
What we do for other countries is secondary to the duties of government toward American citizens. The Government is supposed to provide for Americans' common defense and promote Americans' general welfare.
Now, don't take this to mean that foreign aid and interventionism are bad, because they are more of a case-by-case basis. But American government is for America, not for other countries. That is why other countries elect their own governments.
I do think the "job" of the presidency goes beyond just facilitating a better life for those specific groups, and though I understand why you'd prioritize them in any debate like this, I'd say it's at least a little restrictive. You or your opponent can always argue knock-on effects for anything external to those groups, I guess.
I guess its better, still, you would be forced to argue that people want lower quality of life.
I deliberately made it more generic. I wanted to have some fun with it.
I don't think it is. I said "net quality of life" and for "all Americans and legal immigrants." So it is a whole-country thing, not individuals.
Yeah. It is for fun, emotions or not.
btw I saw you had quite a few more debates since I was gone. Nice job keeping your win streak.
Would you be open to debating something at some point or have you taken another hiatus from debating?
Auto loss for Pro. There is no way Kamala lowers quality of life of every citizen (including herself?).
I'd be tempted if this wasn't so inherently polarizing. I'd expect a lot of debate over what the word "worse" means, even if whoever takes this accepts the definition as written above, which does seem somewhat restrictive.
FYI, the outcome of debates like this get very subjective to emotions.