The Problem with This Year’s Debates
The political process has become a shadow of its former self, especially in the realm of debates. The pre-primary debate season has been aggressively sub-par. The GOP debates, despite their high entertainment value, have been full of crazy talk, personal attacks and he-said-she-said’s. The candidates promoted hate, spewed lies and rarely talked about actual policy. Ben Carson, a candidate with a doctoral degree, has humored the idea that vaccines cause autism. Marco Rubio, once a moderate on immigration, has endorsed the idea of building a wall on our southern border. And of course Donald Trump was given a raised platform to preach his demagoguery, preach his hate and discuss women’s bodily functions. Too much time was wasted on Trump’s insults. Whatever time not wasted on Trump’s insults was lost on a back-and-forth of who-said-what. The candidates barely talked about any policy. They failed to talk about the most pressing issues. There was no discussion about how to control the dizzying rise in college tuition, how to stop the rampant income inequality and the decline of the middle class or how to improve the education system.
The moderators didn’t help. Instead of asking the pressing questions, they merely fed the candidates’ pettiness by asking questions such as, “Would you feel comfortable with Trump’s hands on the nuclear codes?” They fell for the seduction of higher ratings and failed to do their job.
However, the mediocrity was not double sided. Despite failing to touch on any actual issues, at least the GOP debates were scheduled at accessible times and allowed Americans to hear the candidates’ ideas. The DNC only scheduled six debates. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem; most election cycles have eight to ten sanctioned debates. However, other elections also had unsanctioned debates. For this election cycle, the DNC has promised punishment for candidates who partake in unsanctioned debates. Chairwoman Debbie Wassermann Schultz has said that this is to “protect the candidates”. Unfortunately, by including this silly restriction, she was also preventing primary voters from hearing what their candidates have to say. In such limited time, voters have few opportunities to compare and contrast the candidate’s views.
In addition to only having six debates, the debates are also held at very inopportune times. The Republican debates were held on Tuesday nights and at primetime. Although the Republican debates also had the added benefit of the brawling candidates with little filter, the Democratic debates drew fewer viewers because they were aired at inconvenient times. Who wants to spend their Saturday nights winding down from a week of work by watching three people yell at each other?
Debates play an important role in helping voters decide between the candidates. There have been debates since the times of the Ancient Greeks. Throughout our own American history, since the first televised debate between Nixon and Kennedy, we have seen the importance of debates in swaying voters that both parties are committing travesties against in the name of “political debate.”