Nix the presidential debates
Let’s face it. We all know Donald Trump, what he believes and what he thinks. We also know Joe Biden, who has served eight years as vice president and, prior to that, decades in the U.S. Senate.
Both candidates have their own political record. Both candidates have voiced their vision for a White House term beginning in 2021. Other than the boredom of COVID cabin fever, why would we want to watch those two debate? There is nothing more to learn.
We have heard their speeches and any forthcoming debates are not going to draw out anything new. Any debates will be the equivalent of watching cockfights — an antiquated ritual that serves no civic purpose but does involve a lot of strutting and rending.
Trump will call Biden “Sleepy Joe” and call into question the Democrat’s cognitive functions, as if Trump did not for some unstated reason recently take a test that checks for Alzheimer’s. Both will interrupt, Trump probably more so. Each will deny that the other is speaking the truth. If the moderator corrects Trump with fact-checking, there will be outrage — but we know if Mitt Romney needed fact-checking when he debated Barack Obama, then Trump will a thousand times over.
We know that the questions will be lame or superficial. The responses will also be lame or superficial. In many cases, candidates do not answer the questions, but instead use them as a springboard to issue talking points.
Think about past presidential debates. The first televised one, between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, is remembered for nothing more than who looked fresher and most energetic. Kennedy, who we now know was dealing with serious medical problems, was able to fake health and vigor — and viewers fell for it. Nixon, who did not use makeup and who was getting over the flu, looked less robust. Those who listened over the radio thought Nixon won. Those who watched TV thought JFK prevailed. Seems meaningless.
We remember the FordCarter debate. Gerald Ford said as long as he is president, Poland will not be under the thumb of the Soviet Union. Jimmy Carter smiled and pounced and pointed out that Poland was already behind the Iron Curtain. Ford was probably thinking of the Helsinki Accord he helped shepherd, in which the Soviets pledged self-determination for all nations. Mikhail Gorbachev later followed that and the Eastern Bloc crumbled. But during the superficial debate, Carter won the point.
Ronald Reagan is remembered for telling Walter Mondale that he would not count his inexperience against him, and the audience laughed — they were duped in how Reagan, then at the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s, ducked the question about his age. And we remember how Dan Quayle was insulted by Lloyd Benson intoning, “You are no Jack Kennedy.”
Ha, ha, ha! So … that’s democracy? The debates are further reduced when afterward we are shown soundbites over and over. The reduction of what was already reduced renders our politics a spectacle. The debates measure a candidate’s “off the cuff ” abilities, but such skill is often the opposite of what is needed for governing wisely.