I do not like the democratic debates. They are terrible, and I don’t understand why the Democratic Party continues to participate in them. 1
The debates are not official, and they are not impartial, and they are not sanctioned by anybody. They are a TV show made for money. Screw that. 2
The hosts are terrible. They lead the witness, try to start fights, frame the questions so as to either make a candidate look bad or to get them bickering. Most damningly, the questions are simpleminded and ignore the big issues that we must address. 3
Because it’s a TV show, the questioners don’t want considered answers or actual problem-solving. They want sound bites, snark, and in-fighting. They don’t give candidates time to develop thoughts or plans. They break up any hint of collaboration. 4
All the DNC has to do is tell CNN to piss up a rope. CNN has no claim on debates or format or anything. The DNC could put on its own debates and sell them to the networks. 5
Then the DNC could establish their own format, one that actually addresses things like climate change, corruption, trump’s dismantling of the offices of state, election shenanigans, and the CONSTITUTION. 6
I hate those condescending questioners who, when health care is the topic, ask “How are you going to pay for it?” But when useless wars of foreign aggression are the topic, the question is only, “Are you tough enough to fight?” I’d like those questions reversed. 7
And why is it that the “debates” feature only “frontrunners”? Why don’t the debates feature actual democratic thought leaders? Who decides who a “frontrunner” really is, and why does that matter? 8
Watching the debates as they are currently constituted, it’s easy to see our problems as modest and easy for the Greatest Nation on Earth to solve. But we are not the greatest nation and our challenges are game-ending. I want to get serious. 9
And, it just freaking burns my toast that the only person on the stage who kept trying to remind everyone that we are faced with huge, dangerous, civilization-threatening horrors that demand systemic change is a billionaire funding his own vanity campaign. 10
From where I sit, it certainly looks like the two big political parties in America are pulling a Kodak. 11
They both know what they have to do. They both know how to do it.
They both know how hard and uncomfortable it will be to change their own behavior. They both know how easy it is to just take the money and not rock the boat. 12
They both know how hard and uncomfortable it will be to change their own behavior. They both know how easy it is to just take the money and not rock the boat. 12
They both can see that they are approaching the cliff at supersonic speed, and death and destruction awaits. 13
Both political parties seem to be saying, “What the hell. We’re all gonna die, so let’s just party like it’s 1999 and maybe we will just wake up from a bad dream.” 14
