It’s Time To Dispense With The Embarrassing ‘Debate’ Charade
If you have watched any of the circus acts that are being shopped to the American public as the Republican Presidential Debates then you are probably no stranger to this question. “What have I learned?” The most common answer to that question is this. Nothing.
In fact, I have heard another comment even more frequently, that those on the “debate” stage are acting like self-important adolescents; embarrassingly immature.
So, it is time that we ask the obvious question. Should we end these freakish, nationally televised dog and pony shows, at least at the primary level?
By Definition, Debate Doesn’t Even Happen
The word debate is defined this way:
Debate [dih-beyt]:
1) a discussion, as of a public question in an assembly, involving opposing viewpoints; 2) a formal contest in which the affirmative and negative sides of a proposition are advocated by opposing speakers.
Yet seldom, if ever, are there opposing viewpoints presented or debated; no debate is ever actually executed during these “gotcha moment” contests.
In each of these spectacles – and on both sides of the aisle – the electorate is subjected to a rhetorical and sophomoric version of the Hunger Games, better suited for late-night talk show monologues. Each debate participant attempts to inflict damage on all the others so that they can emerge less muddied than the others.
Examples of this juvenile behavior from the 2024 Republican Primary Debates include:
Chris Christie’s comment on former President Donald Trump’s refusal to participate in the debates: “You’re not here tonight because you’re afraid of being on the stage and defending your record…You’re ducking these things. And let me tell you what’s going to happen. You keep doing that, no one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re going to call you Donald Duck.”
Nikki Haley on Vivek Ramaswamy’s use of TikTok as a campaign messaging tool: “This is infuriating because TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we can have…Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”
Mike Pence on Vivek Ramaswamy’s inexperience in elected office: “Now is not the time for on-the-job training," Pence said. "We don't need to bring in a rookie. We don't need to bring in people without experience."
Chris Christie dismissing Vivek Ramaswamy: “I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like Chat GPT...last person in one of these debates…who stood in the middle of the stage and said, ‘What’s a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here’ was Barack Obama…And I'm afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur tendencies tonight.”
It’s A Great Thought But…
And then there are the hollow promises that each of the debate participants make to the American people; promises made that must confront two major challenges.
First, the constitutionally literate among us understand that the president's powers are quite limited. Unless a candidate is willing to admit they will abuse the utilization of executive orders for coercive purposes, they must stipulate that the presidency is narrowly tasked with executing legislation or vetoing it.
Second, a candidate must admit that any lobbying from the bully pulpit a president can exercise still faces a co-equal confrontation with Congress. Again, unless a candidate is willing to come clean with the electorate that he or she is willing to abuse executive order authority, getting Congress to have fidelity to a presidential agenda is the stuff of an opium-conjured dream.
So, without any disclosure of a plan that would make their promises come into the realm of reality, they mean very little, simply tell us that a candidate’s campaign staff understands the preferred positions of the GOP rank-and-file on issues like the US Supreme Court’s decision to return purview over abortion laws to the states, climate policy, whether we should continue sending taxpayer dollars to an unaccountable Ukraine, energy needs, immigration and border security, etc.
Simply put, the winning candidate’s positions on these topics must conform to the will of rank-and-file Republican voters or he/she will not be the winning candidate.
Now This Wouldn’t Waste Our Time
So, instead of wasting our time and the donations dollars of loyal supporters of the Republican National Committee (RNC); instead of continuing the production of these dog and pony shows and facilitating Ronna McDaniel’s self-importance and addiction to purchasing new high-end office furniture, what can we do to adequately educate and inform the electorate on who the GOP candidates are, what they stand for and how they would go about fulfilling their promises to the American people?
I put it to you – and to the hierarchy of the RNC – that we would be better served if they would end their production of debates and, instead:
Facilitate 60 to 90-minute presentations, nationally televised and streamed, so that each candidate – individually – has the opportunity to both explain his or her platform positions and their plans for succeeding in their implementation.
After each candidate has had their chance to be heard a summative recap of all the candidates' platforms and positions including how they would achieve those goals
There is also a strong argument for creating a Super Tuesday Primary Election Day that sees all 50 states and associated territories cast their ballots instead of the current staggered process. Today’s process allows the candidates to pander to the polls and that serves no one but those seeking power.
These changes would most definitely serve the electorate in a more potent and expedient – and fiscally responsible – manner. That said, it would raise another question, this one centered on the spendthrift ways the RNC spends its donor dollars.
But that’s another matter entirely…
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