JOHNSTON: Both sides lost the debate

A quick glance at Snapchat last night and one thing was for certain; nearly everyone and their brother tuned into one of the major news networks to catch a glimpse of history unfolding in the form of nasty arguments and political unrest.

A few days ago, syndicated political pundit Charles Krauthammer imagined these next few presidential debates to be the most important in history. Even if that is a bit of a stretch, they sure will be the most exciting.

The nation couldn’t be less sure of itself right now, and the two polarizing figures — Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton — gathered at Hofstra University at primetime Monday night to politely discuss some of the most pressing questions of the election.

Trump flew out of the blocks in the early rounds, landing punches while Hillary stood on her high horse with her infamous snarky grin waiting for her sweet-spot questions.

For about 15 minutes, Trump bombarded Hillary with questions as to why, in her 30-year career, she has been unable to accomplish any of what she says she will do as president.

America was further enlightened by Trump’s systematic take-down of the United States’ bureaucratic government that fails to accomplish anything and wastes all the money it demands in taxes.

Despite Hillary’s best attempts to attack her opponent about his lack of care for global warming, Trump fired back. He reminded voters that a government that is trillions of dollars in debt, and spends senseless money on failed projects, can’t be asking for more money to fund clean energy if it has any hope of sustaining itself as an institution in our lifetime.

Trump, in fact, demanded a lowering of taxes, “the lowest since Ronald Reagan,” to stimulate the private sector. This would create jobs, having a ripple effect throughout the economy. He deems this the top priority for his presidency, and businessmen around the country rejoiced.

Stuck in a corner, Hillary begged voters to go to her website, where her liberal constituents had their “fact-checkers” working during the debate. Moreover, going to Twitter or Facebook, which is full of young hyper-vocal liberals, was the most efficient way of finding out what college students hated most about Donald’s hair and “mean” attitude.

It was this exact idea that made Hillary look horrible in the debate. She called out Trump for being mean, which, for many in America, is simply not a point of substance that should be debated on the national stage. Many Americans like Trump’s commandeering attitude, so Hillary alienated herself once again.

Unfortunately for Trump, he said the former secretary of state “doesn’t have the look” to be president, which may have been the least effective insult possible, triggering feminists across the country to bombard him with insults on all social media outlets.

However, that occurred later in the debate, after Trump’s demise. The last points that helped out Trump were his email accusations, which were nothing short of spectacular.

After being accused of foul play for not releasing his tax returns, Donald slammed Hillary for not releasing the ridiculous amount of emails she stored on her private server. Although Hillary laughed off the issue for the millionth time, Donald looked strong to many voters.

But then came business ethics. Hillary blasted the Republican for abusing workers, going bankrupt and, again, for being a horrible person. Donald could only rebuttal the fact that he’s a great businessman and that, indeed, he will “Make America Great Again.”

Hillary then snatched the baton and charged forward.

Her next accusation was about race relations. Without saying it, she called her opponent racist and sexist, which is probably the most common insult he receives. Despite this, Trump simply did not have any comebacks worthy of mentioning and he looked like a child who didn’t get the lollipop he wanted.

Choreographing her assault further, Hillary utilized the foreign policy discussion, dropping names like it was a world history lecture. She was prepared for this part of the debate, and, luckily for her, it was near the end of the discussion.

Trump was not without rebuttal, though, as he accused Hillary of being horrible at trade negotiations and called the Iran Deal the worst in history, an idea almost all Republicans share.

Hillary, in typical fashion, knew she was winning the topic and had a huge smile, which dominated the screen. She looked like a boss.

It was these final few minutes that made many view Hillary as the winner of the debate. However, I don’t believe either of them won, or, if they did, not by very much. I doubt we’ll see any noteworthy shift in the polls.

Seeing how they adapt for the future debates will likely be of greater importance and will determine who America puts their faith in come November.