U.S. Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are headed toward their first presidential debate on Monday, at a time of ongoing tensions between blacks and police.
The two will lock horns on the debate stage on Monday, amid ongoing protests in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina that have seen a dozen police officers injured by protesters.
The protests happened after a black man was shot and killed by police, the latest in a string of high-profile incidents in recent years in which police have shot young, black men. In this most recent case, the police officer himself was black, but many cases have seen white officers shoot African American young men, giving the issue a racial component as well.
The two candidates view the situation differently. Republican candidate Trump has touted himself as the law-and-order candidate, and has on numerous occasions expressed support for the police. At the polar opposite side of the spectrum, Democratic candidate Clinton has called for social justice.
One of the topics to be discussed on Monday' s presidential debate will be the general direction of the country, and Trump is likely to argue that he is the man to set things straight in a chaotic world.
"Trump will take advantage of urban unrest to say things are out of control and the nation needs a strong leader to restore order. He will say the police are under attack by protesters who don't understand law enforcement," Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua.
These appeal well with Trump's white voters who don't like disorder and who fear minority protesters taking over urban streets, West said.
Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that Trump understands how those law-and-order trends tap into support from his base.
The race is now reverting back to a more traditional, highly-partisan election where both sides are concerned about shoring up their base or attracting people who generally wouldn' t vote rather than reaching towards the increasingly small pool of moderates and independents.
Trump has to carefully navigate a path where he talks about law and order in a way that continues to generate enthusiasm among his base. At the same, he should avoid making comments that are seen as antagonistic or racist, which alienate the more moderate and pragmatic Republican voters, Mahaffee said.
Indeed, Trump has in recent weeks taken on a more presidential demeanor, shying away from the off-the-cuff and obnoxious remarks that have been characteristic of his campaign up until the last few weeks, But it' s not certain that he can resist the temptation to spout off at Clinton during the first debate.
For her part, Clinton will likely take the social justice stance on the issue of blacks and police. And that will likely show up in Monday's debate, although she is also likely to go after Trump about his controversial rhetoric, which some have deemed to be racist.
"I think Clinton will continue to make this debate about Trump' s temperament, where a lot of 'law and order' comments can also be seen as racist and authoritarian," Mahaffee said.
Furthermore, Clinton is desperate to rebuild the Obama coalition of 2012, which drew strong support from minorities and urban communities, he said.
This allowed Obama to win the reelection, while carrying the fewest number of counties across the nation in electoral history. This reflected the strength of his turnout and support from urban areas-across demographic groups, he argued.
"For Hillary to address the law and order issue, I think she needs to continue to emphasize that law and order cannot be an aegis for racism, isolationism, and authoritarianism," Mahaffee said.
