Face Your Male Opponent in the Political Arena: Counter His Attacks With Vibrato

Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump during their first presidential debate in 2016

Gender roles generally find men with the following traits:  commanding, aggressive, interruptive.  Men are like this often in their speech, in the conference room, and in the political debate.  Women are less so and if she is otherwise, she may be judged as not acting within her feminine role.  How dare she interrupt him?  How dare she command the room?  How dare she voice her own opinion!  Unfortunately, this is the female gender role attributed to women today.  The more traditional role society attributes to women — the less vocal, less outspoken she would be in her interactions with others.  American society advocates women's rights, generally speaking, but have we come a long way since the 14th Amendment?  Moreover, since the First and Second wave of Feminist Movement?  Or do we in a society today still expect certain attributes for men and women that confines them in their roles? 


During the Trump-Clinton presidential political debates, Trump is aggressive in his argument against Clinton.  Men in the political arena (more often than not), use personal attacks to win the debate.  So what is a woman to do?  Well, firstly, counter his attacks with a strong defense and do it with vibrato.  Clinton conducts herself professionally, not making any jibes or insults at Trump, but I cannot say otherwise for Trump.  Clinton is usually conservative in her speech and in presidential debates.  I re-edited her counterattacks in this platform so her argument can resound with more power.


Here is a clip of the original script of the 2016 Trump/Clinton presidential debate modulated by Anderson Cooper (SCROLL DOWN for MY REVISED EDITION of Clinton's counter AFTER HER INTIAL REMARKS):

Q:  What specific tax provisions would you change to ensure the wealthiest of Americans pay their taxes?

TRUMP:  Well, one thing I’ll do is get rid of is carried interest.  One of the greatest provisions—some people like me, to be honest w/you, I give up a lot when I run b/c I knock out the tax code.  And she could’ve done this years ago, by the way.  She’s a United States—she was a United States senator.  She complains that Donald Trump took advantage of her tax code.  Well, why didn’t she change it when you were senator?  The reason you didn’t is b/c all your friends take the same advantage as I do.  You have provisions and the tax code that frankly, we could change.  But you wouldn’t change it b/c all of these people give you the money so you can take negative ads on Donald Trump.   But, and I say that a lot about a lot of things.  I heard Hilary complaining about so many different things over the years.  She’s been there for 30 years—she’s been doing this stuff.  She never changed, and she never will change.  She never will change. 

We’re getting rid of carried interest provisions.  I’m lowering taxes, actually b/c I think it’s so important for corporations.  B/c we have corporations leaving massive corporations, and little ones.  Little ones can form.  We’re getting rid of regulations which goes hand-in-hand w/the lowering the taxes.  We’re bringing the tax rate down from 35% to 15%.  We’re cutting taxes for the middle-class and I will tell you, we’re cutting the big league for the middle-class.  And I will tell you, Hilary Clinton is raising taxes—she can look at me—she’s raising the taxes really high.  And what’s that going to do is a disaster for the country.  But she is raising the taxes and I’m lowering the taxes.  That in itself is a big difference.  We are going to be thriving again, we have no growth in this country.  There’s no growth.  If John has a GDP of 7%, it’s like a national catastrophe.  We’re down at 1%.  And that’s like no growth.  We’re going lower in my opinion.  And a lot of it has to do w/the fact that our taxes are so high.  Just about the highest in the world.  And I’m bringing it down to one of the lower in the world.  And I think it’s so important.  One of the most important thing we could do.  But she is raising everybody’s taxes massively. 

Cooper:  Secretary Clinton, you have 2 minutes.  The question is what specific provision to ensure the wealthiest of Americans pay their fair share? 


CLINTON:  Well, everything you heard just now from Donald is not true.  I’m sorry I have to keep saying this but he lives in an alternative reality.  And it is sort of amusing to hear somebody who hasn’t paid federal income taxes in maybe 20 years talking about what he is going to do.  But I’ll tell you what he’s going to do.  His plan will give the wealthy and the corporations the biggest tax cuts they ever had.  More than the Bush tax cuts, by at least a factor of 2.  Donald always takes care of Donald and people like Donald and this would be a massive gift.  And indeed the way that he talks about his tax cuts would end up raising taxes on middle-class families—millions of middle-class families.  And here’s now what I want to do. 

I have said nobody who makes less than $250,000 a year and that’s the vast majority of Americans, as you know, will have their taxes raised b/c I think we got to go where the money is.  And the money is with the people who have taken advantage of every single break in the tax code.  And yes, when I was a senator, I did vote to close corporate loopholes.  I voted to close one of the loopholes he took advantage of when he claimed a million dollar loss that enabled him from paying taxes.  I want to have a tax on people who are making a $1m —it’s called a buffet rule—yes, Warren Buffet is the one who’s gone out and said somebody like him should not be paying a lower tax rate than his secretary.  I want to have a surcharge on incomes above $5m.  We have to make up for lost times b/c I want to invest in you.  I want to invest in hard-working families.  And I think it’s been unfortunate but it’s happened.  Since the great recession, the gains have all gone to the top.  And we need to reverse that.  People like Donald who paid zero in taxes, zero for vets, zero for our military, zero for health and education.  That is wrong and we’re going to make sure nobody—no corporation, and no individual can get away w/o paying his fair share to support our country.

Cooper:  Thank you, Mr. Trump I want to give you time to respond.  I just want to tell the viewers what she’s referring to—last month, the number 1 issue on facebook, for the first time in the campaign, the New York Times published 3 pages of your 1995 tax return that showed that you claimed a $965m loss which means that you could’ve avoided paying personal federal income taxes for years.  You said you paid state taxes, real estate taxes, property taxes—you have not answered those simple question:  Did you use that $960m loss to avoid paying personal federal income taxes. 

TRUMP:  Of course I do.  Of course I do.  And so do all of her donors or most of her donors.  I know many of her donors.  Her donors took massive tax write-offs.   A lot of my write-off was depreciation and other things that Hilary has allowed.  And she’ll always allow b/c people that give her all this money, they want it.  That’s why.  See, I understand the tax code better than anybody that’s ever run for president.  Hilary Clinton has extremely complex.  Hilary Clinton has friends that want all of these provisions including they want the carried interest provision, which is very important to Wall Street people but they really want the carried interest provision which I believe Hilary is leaving.  In a very interesting way, she’s leaving carried interest but I will tell you that the number 1 pay tremendous numbers of taxes.  I absolutely is and so did Warren Buffet and so did George Seurrus, and so did many of the other people that Hilary is getting money from.  Now I won’t mention their names b/c they’re rich but they’re not famous.  So we won’t make them famous.

Cooper:  Can you say how many years you have avoided paying personal federal income taxes? 

TRUMP:  No, but I pay tax and I pay federal taxes too.  But I have a write-off and a lot of it is depreciation which is a wonderful charge.  I love depreciation, and you know, she’s given it to us.  Hey, if she had a problem—for 30 years she’s been doing this Anderson, and I say it all the time, she talks about healthcare.  Why didn’t she do anything about it?  She talks about taxes.  Why didn’t she do something about it?  She doesn’t do anything about anything other than talk.  With her, it’s all talk and no action.  And again, Bernie Sanders, it’s really bad judgment.  She has made bad judgment not only on taxes; she’s made bad judgment on Libya, on Syria, on Iraq.  Her and Obama —whether you like it or not—the way they got out of Iraq, the vacuum they left, that’s why Isis formed in the first place.  They started from that little area and now they’re in 32 different nations.  Congratulations, great job.

Cooper:  Want to respond Secretary Clinton?

CLINTON:  Well, here we go again.  I’ve been in favor of getting rid of carried interest for years. Ahm—starting when I was a senator from New York, but that’s not the point here.   

TRUMP:  why didn’t you do it?

CLINTON:  B/c I was a senator w/a Republican president.

TRUMP:  You could’ve done it.  If you were an effective senator, you could’ve done it.  But you were not an effective senator.

Cooper:  Please allow her to respond.  She didn’t interrupt you.

CLINTON:  You know, under our constitution, presidents have something called veto power.  Look, he has now said repeatedly, 30 years this, 30 years that.  So let me talk about my 30 years in public service.  I’m very glad to do so. 

8 million kids, every year, has health insurance. Because when I was first lady, I worked w/Democrats and Republicans to create the Children’s Health Insurance Program.  Hundreds of thousands of kids now have the chance to be adopted.  B/c I worked to change our adoption and foster care system.  After 9-11, I went to work with Republican major, governor and president to rebuild New York and to get health care for our first responders who are suffering from b/c they had run toward danger and gotten sickened by it.  Hundreds of thousands of national guards and reserve members have health care because of the work that I did and children have safer medicines b/c I was able to pass a law that required dosing to be more carefully done.  When I was secretary of state, I went around the world advocating for our country, but also advocating for our women’s rights.  To make sure that women had a decent chance to have a better life and negotiated a treaty w/Russia to lower nuclear weapons.  400 pieces of legislation have my name on it.  As a sponsor or cosponsor when I was a senator for 8 years.  I worked very hard and was very proud to be reelected by New York even by bigger margin than when I was elected the first time.  And as president,  I will take that work —that bipartisan work, that finding common ground—b/c you have to be able to get along w/people to get things done in Washington.  And I’ve proven that I can and for 30 years, I produced results. 

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THE GENERAL TAKEAWAY from this short clip is that Trump immediately goes on an offensive strike against Clinton.  Men make aggressive offenses especially in a political debate.  He has to win his debate.  Clinton, not as aggressive, does not counterattack his personal attacks enough, but she addresses his false promises and plans that would most likely not hold out --in a matter-of-fact way (not strong enough).  (Clinton can learn Obama's street tactics of dissing the political contender in the ring.)  

Compelling arguments are structured so that the message comes across to the listener's ears.  Build your argument with a clear subject, repeated key words, and nicely added adverbs that kicks up a notch on your sentences on the stereo.  Link your ideas together and give a cohesive resonance.  And Clinton could undermine his points strongly, by asking questions then immediately answering, and thereby proving otherwise to the audience.  Not that she is an effective speaker, the average listener seeks a candidate who is relatable, who they can trust to be in the office.  And so, she can also add some comments (here and there) to bring in the personal to the audience so they can relate to her -- as a person, a woman, and a running political candidate --who serves them.  So prepare to face your contender in the boxing arena, oh no, the political arena, wherever the debate occurs. 

HERE IS MY RENDITION OF CLINTON'S PART OF THE DEBATE, REVISED:

CLINTON:      Taxes, Regulations, Corporations:  these were the recipes at the root of the wide margin of income disparity in the U.S.  Let’s address Trump’s argument.  Trump said he’s “bringing the tax rate down from 35% to 15%,” he also claimed he’ll be “cutting the big league for the middle-class.”  First, people may think what he says has merit.  On the contrary, I have evidence that shows otherwise.  It sounds promising—like a shining rack of dishes you would unload from your dishwasher—the only problem is you’ve forgotten to put the liquid detergent inside before pressing the start button.  Although Trump had not paid federal income taxes in close to 20 years, he goes on talking about what he can do for American families and their taxes.  How appropriate is that?  Unfitting is more like it.  To illustrate, his plan will only give the wealthy and the corporation —the biggest tax cuts they’ve had.  Like the big tax cuts during the Bush administration, Trump intends to do the same, if not more, only doubling the cut to the wealthy and the corporations.  What a massive gift, but only to the thin sectors of the U.S. population!  Moreover, his plan raises taxes on the middle-class—that is millions of middle-class families—who work hard to earn their living.  So, what about the rest of society that makes up the larger percentage?

On the other hand, this is what my plan will do. 

Firstly, under my plan, majority of Americans who belong in the middle-class—middle-class families usually make less than $250,000 a year—will not have their taxes raised, whatsoever.  The money had been with those who have gotten every single tax break.  And yes, when I was a senator, I voted to close corporate loopholes.  I voted to close one of the loopholes when he claimed a million dollar loss, a benefit which frees him from paying taxes.  Secondly, I plan on implementing taxes on those making $1 million—called a Buffet rule—yes, surprisingly, Warren Buffet said somebody like him should not be paying a lower tax rate than his secretary.  My plan would also have surcharge on incomes above $5 million.  Because we must make up for lost times, because we must invest in you, the “middle-class families,” and because we must invest in hard-working families, we must make these changes.  Thirdly, since the great recessions, the gains went to the top.  We must disperse these gains and reduce the income gap, by closing the gap so majority of Americans today reaps the rewards from their hard work —for themselves, for their families and for a much brighter future.  Only someone like Trump, who paid zero in taxes, zero for vets, zero for the military, zero for health and education would gain from the tax advantage.  It is not that our country has such unequal dispersal of income, it is that we have not done enough to make great changes for the middle-class, for the wealthy, and for the corporations in our country.  Start becoming one of the changes in the imbalanced system.  Make them so the income disparity, the wide gap in our society change for a brighter future—not only for the top thin sector but for everyone else also.  I plan on doing so.  So join me in this effort. 

CLINTON:            Again, Trump talks empty rhetoric.  Again, on the contrary, I have been in favor of getting rid of carried interest for years.   Again, since I was a senator in New York, I have been an advocate.  But that’s not the point. 

CLINTON:            No, it is not that I did not do it.  Look at our two-party political system —then a Republican president, and I, as a Democratic senator —which prevented such action.  Check it.

CLINTON:            Trump talks effective senator like a leader running without its main structure.  Unfortunately, I do not make up the rules.  It has been there for more than 220 years.  And in our constitution, the presidents have something called a veto power that can use to object new congressional proposals.  And nowhere does it say in our system that only one individual can make the sole decision in implementing the change for a new legislation.  That is our system in this country. 

Trump has said 30 years this, 30 years that, so let me talk about my 30 years in public service.  I’m glad to do so. 

Health insurance cost has risen.  An average middle-class family spends more of their paychecks on health care expenses today than a decade ago.  But today, 8 million kids have health insurance every year.  During my work as a first lady, I worked both with Democrats and Republicans and created Children’s Health Insurance Program.  Since my work then, hundreds of thousands of children now have health insurance.  Next, after September 11, I worked with Republican mayor, governor and president in rebuilding New York and getting first responders.  Moreover, hundreds and thousands of national guards and reserve members have health care since the work I have done; subsequently, children also have safer medicines because of the work I have contributed.  Next, when I was Secretary of State, I traveled across the globe advocating for our country and for our women’s rights.  Working to ensure better life for women, I also negotiated a treaty with Russia to lower their nuclear weapons.  Furthermore, 400 pieces of legislation have my name on it.  And yes, as a senator for 8 years, the polls will show, I had been reelected in New York —and with a wider margin than the first election.  And as president, I will take that work—the bipartisan work, the common ground with both parties—and get things done in Washington.  Because getting results mean getting along with people, we must attain them again and again, by working with diverse group of people.  I have proven that for the past 30 years and since, and I look forward to doing it again with my new acting role as president.