Presidential Debates

The presidential debates now a days can relate to past debates by issues going on in society and each candidate talking about how they can change the problem and make society better for the people.

In the Lincoln Douglas debates an issue that was discussed was slavery. Douglas believed that slavery was natural and was nothing more then popular sovereignty, while Lincoln believed it was morally wrong. Douglas stated the following about slavery in the very first debate that took place in Ottawa, Illanois :

"One of the reserved rights of the States, was the right to regulate the relations between Master and Servant, on the slavery question. At the time the Constitution was framed, there were thirteen States in the Union, twelve of which were slaveholding States and one free State."

Lincoln made a come back to Douglas stating the following:

"I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world-enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites-causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity,"

In today's presidential debate there are plenty of issues that effect the people that make up our society. Like how slavery effected the colored races freedom, abortion in our society threatens some women's choice to be able to have one. It seems that it would be correct that whether or not a woman has a baby is her own choice but abortion is an issue that is discussed still to this day.
Obama stated the following about abortion in the third presidential debate:

"But I am somebody who believes that Roe versus Wade was rightly decided. I think that abortion is a very difficult issue and it is a moral issue and one that I think good people on both sides can disagree on."

As you can see from this quote, Obama is for abortion and women having the right to decide whether or not a they want to have the baby or not. While McCain stated the following about the topic:

"I thought it was a bad decision. I think there were a lot of decisions that were bad. I think that decisions should rest in the hands of the states."

What McCain was talking about in this quote is the decision of Roe VS Wade in the first place. He believes that abortion should be a state issue rather then a federal issue meaning that each state should decided whether or not they should legalize abortion in that very state rather then having abortion be legal or illegal in all states.
So if you compare today's debates to those that were held in the past you can see that they still relate by issues that effect peoples freedom or the "social contract".

Lincoln-Douglas Debate
McCain-Obama Debate