Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Last Tuesday, The Daily Gazette organized a presidential debate.
All debates are political theater, but ours was especially theatrical: At least some of the debaters did not actually support their candidates, and all walked a fine line between surrogacy and straight-up imitation.
David Molina Cavazos ’20 made the video. Take a look:
The Trump actor (Gilbert Orbeia IIRC) was absolutely hilarious. All of the actors were excellent stand-ins for the candidates (Stein, scattered and unfocused; Johnson, looks good but falls apart under cross-examination, still the strongest on individual rights; Clinton, a refined machine of political will and by far the best candidate, but with a lot of (somewhat overblown) scandals), but the guy doing Trump was the best. Unfortunately the walking trash fire that is Donald Trump is too awful to parody (as in, Trump will inevitably outdo even the most absurdist sarcasm or parody), but still, the actor did a truly great job and he should feel good.