We Deserve Better
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Originally I decided not to watch the “Presidential Debate” last night because I knew it would be a political circus, a side show yet another indication the US was in deep degeneration. But like the proverbial moth to a flame I was drawn to it so my wife and I watched it anyway. However I did not watch it uncritically with passion or a partisan leaning towards one contestant over the other. I watched it critically and my take-away was, we deserve better as a nation, we as a people deserve much better than what was on display last night!
No one in their right mind would call what we saw that an actual debate. Anyone who grew up during the era where middle school, high school and college students actually were taught how to formally debate, anyone who knows the rules of debating knows what occurred last night was not a debate in any shape form or fashion! It wasn’t even an informal debate. While there were ground rules and both sides agreed to them, what we saw was was two adults trading sound bytes and talking points, personal attacks, vague rhetoric passing as policies and two so called moderators trying to keep control of the antics but who obviously favored Kamala Harris over Donald Trump. The moderators constantly “fact checked” Donald Trump but rarely did so to Harris. It was worse than a parody or a satire of American politics.
In a formal debate there is audience participation, members of the audience are allowed to ask questions and in some cases vote to determine who won the debate, or announce which team was most persuasive in their arguments. Obviously that did not happen last night since that was not the format for that “debate”. We the people will decide that on November the 5th, 2024.
In a formal debate there are two teams or two participants taking sides on a specific issue, one side argues in the affirmative the other side argues in opposition. The contestants are required to cite their reasons and back their assertions by supplying data, facts and logical arguments. There is usually a judge or moderator, the contestants are required to be civil, they are expected to do their homework to become knowledgeable about the topic or question and in some cases such as a debate class, they may be instructed to subsequently switch sides; those arguing in the affirmative then argue against and vice versa.
What we saw last night was not a debate, it was a circus. The moderators asked questions and neither participant answered them even when pressed by the moderator for a simple yes or no answer! In a formal debate the participants are expected to be civil and respectful towards their opponent, that was not the case last night; each called the other a liar, each made wild claims and engaged in Ad-hominem personal attacks on the other. To me it was reminiscent of a junior high or middle school election campaign for student government with each side promising longer recesses a better variety of deserts in the cafeteria or less homework, assertions everybody knows will not happen; or a campaign where one candidate makes bombastic claims and assertions too good to be true. That’s what last nigh was, that’s how bad it was.
Neither candidate offered any details on their “plans” and both made some outrageous and outlandish claims. Trump said he would end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine while he was president elect if he won because Putin and Zelenskyy feared and respected him. Kamala Harris promised government money for down payments for first time home buyers, child care tax credits for infants and an assortment of tax cuts and give-aways but provided no mention how she was going to pay for all of this or the impact her policies would have on the rapidly compounding government debt and interest payments! It was an insult to the collective intelligence of the American people!
As bad as the “debate” was, the post debate analysis was even more bizarre. Surrogates for the candidates made the rounds in the media spin room (I kid you not that is what the media called it a spin room) proclaiming with straight faces and righteous fervor their candidate won, their candidate was the most presidential, most believable etc. It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone or an issue in a Superman comic book about Bizzaro World.
Meanwhile the talking heads, teleprompter readers and “influencers” on the various cable news channels did the exact same thing shoveling their biases on their viewers. The only station/channel that exhibited even a modicum of objectivity was New Nation; meanwhile Fox, MSNBC, CNN, New Max and the over the air channels held onto their usual ideological biases trying to sell them as objective journalism and reporting.
It was bad, really really bad. We deserve better. We deserve better candidates, we deserve better campaigns and we definitely deserve better outcomes. Alas that pitiful display, that so called debate merely reflects the consciousness, the values, the incivility, partisanship, animus, fractiousness and mendacity of our society. We deserve better but in order to have better we must demand better, do and be better ourselves!
Posted By: Junious Stanton
Wednesday, September 11th 2024 at 10:50AM
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