Often presidential candidates, especially during debates, have a tendency to make statements without providing proof.
College students cannot submit an essay without a works cited page, providing the professor with a list of sources where the student received their information. How is it possible that a college student is required to provide sources for an essay, but someone who may end up running the country doesn’t have to provide source material?
Websites such as politifact.com and CNN.com have been fact checking assertions made by Donald Trump and Joe Biden throughout the 2020 presidential debates. During one of the debates, Trump said to Biden, “you are going to extinguish 180 million people with their private healthcare that they are very happy with. You’re going to socialist medicine.” This turned out to be false.
Biden’s proposed healthcare plan calls for creating a public option, a government-run plan that would be available on the Affordable Care Act exchanges, and Biden has stated that he would not eliminate private insurance.
Trump also said to Biden, “you did a crime bill. 1994. Where you called them super predators. African Americans. Super predators. And they’ve never forgotten it.” This also turned out to be false.
It was Hillary Clinton who used the term ‘super predators’ in a 1996 speech she did in New Hampshire in support of Biden’s 1994 crime bill. During one of the debates, Biden said, “Trump is going to be the first president of the United States to leave office having fewer jobs in his administration than when he became president.” This turned out to be true. Since president Harry Truman, who left office in 1953, every president has added jobs.
The main reason why college students have to provide sources in their essays is plagiarism. Plagiarism is the act of taking someone else’s words and passing them off as your own. If a college student is caught committing plagiarism, they could be expelled from their university.
Plagiarism not only looks bad on the student’s record, but also the university’s. Having a student commit plagiarism on their campus discredits the university. A college student committing plagiarism can ruin their reputation. Not only can their reputation be ruined in terms of going to college or graduate school, it can also ruin their reputation in terms of their career.
Stefani Cabusora, a freshman biology major, says that the reason presidential candidates can get away without having sources is because, “people are gullible and they don’t do proper research. They just listen to what people tell them and just believe it.”
Frachesca Ross, a sophomore psychology major, says that the reason that the candidates can get away with not having sources is, “that’s what this country is built upon. Just straight cis-gendered white men saying whatever they want and then other white men agreeing with them.” Ross also says it depends on whatever political party the candidate is in. “Democrats are always interrogated about where they got their information from, but Republicans are rarely ever asked about it.”
Political candidates are not held to the same standards as college students in terms of having sources to back up what they’re saying. College students cannot turn in an essay without including a works cited page, but presidential candidates can talk through a whole debate without evidence to back up what they are saying.
Those who are being considered to lead the country should not have the option to say things without providing evidence. America’s leaders must be held to a higher standard than college students.
