Debates Are On Death’s Doorstep

Debates are over, good riddance

Submitted by HMR82

After weeks of negotiations, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump met on the debate stage. It was underwhelming. The modern political landscape has become a realm where spectacle overshadows substance, and the once revered presidential debates have devolved into a circus of soundbites, theatrics, and divisiveness. Boomers eat this stuff up, but does anyone else? The debates, once intended to illuminate the policies and character of candidates, now too often foster an environment where reasoned discourse gives way to mudslinging and chasing a soundbite. It is time to end the tradition of presidential debates, for they no longer serve the noble purpose they once claimed. They have become an anachronism made for a different population and different system than what we have devolved into in 2024.

The nature of a debate, structured around a quick exchange of ideas, incentivizes candidates to perform rather than to deliberate in depth. Get that soundbite and canned line out there. In the pressure cooker of a televised event, candidates are expected to distill complex policies into pithy, memorable quips. What we saw Tuesday was Trump sliding in some memorable lines and Kamala reciting prepared remarks (likely knowing questions in advance) and leaving no memorable quip to clip and share later. This is no place to discuss the intricacies of governance. Would our voter base even want or understand those details? A modern debate is not the place for nuanced discourse or deep explanation of complex policy issues; rather, it is a venue for gladiatorial combat in the arena of public opinion. The most successful candidates are not those with the most thoughtful policies, but those who can command the room with charisma, wit, and, all too often, a brazen disregard for facts. America is an ADD nation and we love a fight. We want to see arguments and someone crash and burn. Policies? Who cares?

All but the most die-hard Democrats also realize debate moderators are just Democrat commissars on the stage. This is a structural issue inherent to the televised debate format. The debate stage, with its cameras and left-leaning moderators, becomes a playground for the narrative makers to set the forum to make headlines. Why would mods repeat topics from the Trump/Biden debate? Why avoid immigration and inflation to spend time on Charlottesville and climate change? Due to media bias, the public is left with little more than a distorted version of priorities and reality.

These debates are useless as they really are just America waiting for the chance to see a car wreck. Biden provided that in June. People wondered if Trump would flame out onstage in 2016. It pits candidates against one another in an adversarial framework, emphasizing conflict for virality. Everyone knew Kamala wanted an “I’m speaking” clippable moment. It was ninety minutes of anticipation. This promotes an environment of cynicism and negativity, where the focus shifts from the pressing needs of the nation to the personal failings of candidates on stage. No one is changing their mind.

Maybe you watched, but if you avoided it, you did not miss much. The death of debates is upon us. We will not even need them if the Democrats win this year. Once America becomes a synchronized one party state not just a one party government with the pretense of options via elections, debates will die. The fight will be within the party in control and those fights are behind closed doors. It is not just the party consolidation but the voters. We do not have population with the policy acumen of the past. It is sports team fandom with an undercurrent of existential fear.

Some may argue that debates are a necessary tradition, a democratic ritual that allows the public to see how candidates perform under pressure. But this argument misses the point. The only way they could serve a purpose in a one party state would be like in Fahrenheit 451 when two women discuss the last election and mention the televised debate where the handsome guy obviously was the choice over the ugly guy. Our elite might want visual messaging to comfort people about the right vote. The time has come to say adios to the presidential debate and not with a sense of loss. By abandoning the spectacle of the debate, we can admit that the republic is not a republic anymore. Oligarchies must have some way to showcase the next leader. We will discover what that is in the near future. Former President Obama floated out a political, American Idol style competition for the nomination to replace President Biden on the ticket. Maybe that is the replacement. I am sure that cannot be rigged.