The RNC also doesn’t really have any power over this anyway. Which means that if the winner of the primary does participate in the debate they can be a “maverick” who doesn’t follow the rules. /gag
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After my previous post I thought about this more, and as scary and frustrating as it is that one party has given up all semblance of having an actual platform (other than a cult of personality) I actually think it’s not that bad. I’ve long thought these debates are a horrible way to judge a candidate’s fitness for the role.
The role relies heavily on coordinating a team of smart people to enact policy within the current rules. Honestly, making them do a dance off, with their chosen cabinet members, would get closer. Can you choose good people and work with others? Allow their expertise and talents to shine, even if it means being a back-up dancer?
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That made me think of something which could be both engaging and useful if done right - replacing or supplementing the presidential debates with a game show/model UN hybrid.
A team of economists, sociologists, political scientist etc come up with a year of natural disasters, economic challenges, foreign events, political scandals involving members of the candidates party and all the kinds of things an administration would have to actually deal with. Before the actual event, each candidate submits which policies and priorities they’d implement first if elected, and the team works out the potential effects of those and adjusts the scenario for each candidate accordingly.
Then the candidates and their team have to start working through the simulated year, providing their response to each event and their reasoning for that response.
All of that gets bundled up and presented to the voters as a series of mock-news clips, press conferences and talking head analysis.
No winner is declared, and everybody just judges which simulated America they’d rather live in if it was real.
Just for funsies, there could even be one really out-there event in the scenario - like first contact with aliens, Elvis coming back from the dead, AIs becoming sentient and demanding legal rights…
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Republicans would just Kobyashi Maru it.
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Exactly. I think it might need some work in terms of how it’s delivered, but yes. This is much closer to what the commander in chief needs to do. It would be awesome if during the “interview” phase we got to actually see how potential candidates would respond.*
The debates strike me as kind of similar to those “trick” interview questions we’ve discussed on other threads.
*and I realize that in our current reality, at least 27% of voters don’t give a shit, but I care. I know I’m not alone.
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So I guess they’ll still have primary debates? From what I can tell those are administered by each party. Maybe I have a bad memory, but I don’t see any complaints against the Presidential debates that couldn’t be made at the primary debates. Republicans had 12 in 2016 and Democrats had 11 in 2020.
I can see one of the right wing media outlets announcing their own “fair and balanced” debate and then scoffing when no Democratic candidate opts to participate.
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I figure that the way things are going now we will just have a Battle Royale within a few years instead
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I’ve been thinking about this too!
My idea is basically a game show: you put the candidates in soundproof booths with no access to any kind of assistance and ask them basic questions about how government works, foreign relations and history, how they would respond to issues, and a lightning round of ethical issues & personal questions.
Answers must be under 30 seconds in length, and inability to answer basic questions results in demerits. No winner is declared, but those watching can decide how competent a candidate is.
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a primary debate between Dump and DeSantis is precisely what they want to avoid. li’l donny is scared of MoRon. bigly scared.
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Maybe, but this only applies to debates orchestrated by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Since the RNC, afaik, are the ones that organize the primary debates they don’t need to do anything.
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I wish they’d take the obvious next step, and stop their candidate’s participation in presidential election.
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