I like the idea of primaries. As to debates, though - the way they are conducted (in the United States anyway) seems to be very problematic - comes down to quips and comebacks, talking over one another, going over allotted time, not really answering the questions and using prepared sound bites, and trying to go viral, all while lots and lots of logical fallacies are employed, and a populace that judges on the most arbitrary aspects of all this hot mess, such as who appeared to dominate or came off “strong”, etc.
I wonder if there is some other way(s) to have candidates express their platforms during primaries. I honestly don’t have a great answer for this. I suppose it still comes back to a rather tuned-out and generally clueless populace that will decide things largely based on “vibes” anyway…
I like the idea of primaries. As to debates, though - the way they are conducted (in the United States anyway) seems to be very problematic - comes down to quips and comebacks, talking over one another, going over allotted time, not really answering the questions and using prepared sound bites, and trying to go viral, all while lots and lots of logical fallacies are employed, and a populace that judges on the most arbitrary aspects of all this hot mess, such as who appeared to dominate or came off “strong”, etc.
I wonder if there is some other way(s) to have candidates express their platforms during primaries. I honestly don’t have a great answer for this. I suppose it still comes back to a rather tuned-out and generally clueless populace that will decide things largely based on “vibes” anyway…
Town halls work. Speeches, work. meeting with constituents in any of a dozen formats… works. hell, even an AMA somewhere.
Personally, we should replace debates with MarioKart64 competitions.