Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Debate Depression
Televised debates depress me. I don’t see statesmen and women (either party). I see people who desperately (and often unbelievably) want to be president. Their willingness to say almost anything to gain votes—pandering—is frightening. Most political promises wind up on the floor not in the law. If you refuse to answer a “yes or no” questions with a “yes” or “no,” what does that say about you?
Political debates are vehicles that pretend they can change people’s minds and give them rational choices. Instead, they tend to give pseudo-validation to pure gas, substitute bloviation for insight, and provide mass media exposure for loony ideas.
And if the polls and statistics are correct, virtually no viewers change their minds, they simply “root” for their favorite. My favorite is a rerun of Law and Order.