The useless Presidential "debates" and how they must be changed
America needs to change our election system, bring in Third Parties into the debates and force the candidates to outline their solutions rather than spew their personal attacks or self-back slapping
By Ray Hanania
FREE/Politics Presidential Election/Monday Sept. 16, 2024
There is nothing worse than listening to two arrogant, self-focused politicians and candidates for public office spend all their time talking about themselves and attacking each other.
That is the essence of the debate the nation was handed on Sept. 10, 2024, between Republican and former President Donald Trump and Democrat and Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia hosted by ABC TV.
There was really nothing of substance that was addressed. Harris and Trump each promoted themselves, pandered to their core voter base and tried to ridicule the other.
Neither offered any details on what they would do to turn around our horrible economy, which is draining bank accounts, and costing the average American more than triple in costs for groceries, unjustified hikes in gasoline, and skyrocketing product prices.
Neither talked about how they would stop the rising crime, that the news media in an effort to Help Harris, insists is the best it has ever been. No. Crime is rising. They simply manipulate the data to make it look "better" than it is. National government's do that all the time.
Neither talked about how they would stop the illegal entry of foreigners into America, including those who have criminal backgrounds like those who are pushed to come to the United States from Venezuela and Haiti and several other South American and Central American countries.
Instead, they argued about the never ending political issue of Abortion, with each side claiming they have the best solution. There is only one, a compromise in which abortion is limited to the first trimester, and situations where the life of the mother is in jeopardy and situations involving pregnancy caused by incest or rape.
Abortion should not be turned into birth control.
That is NOT a "woman's rights" issue, but one of common sense.
But the bottom line is that instead of speaking to the American people and offering solutions, the two candidates were slandering each other and patting themselves on their backs. No one truly addressed the needs of the public to show what plans the candidates for President of the United States have to address our major challenges, the economy being the most grave.
One reason why the debates have been an utter and worthless failure to the American public has to do with the financially driven metamorphosis of the national mainstream news media from a communications industry that reports facts, to one that spins facts to favor their partisan political beliefs.
Yes, the national news media is biased when it comes to many (not all) topics. Instead of reporting the news, they help craft the news favorable to the candidate they support.
Normally, the debates are organized by the Presidential Commission on Debates, which is intended to be objective, using fairness and non-partisan concerns to provide an effective debate. They have been doing it for years, except this year.
First CNN decided to host its own debate because it didn't like the fact that candidates could interrupt each other, crafting it to silence Trump's proclivity to interrupt his rivals and help President Joe Biden. As it turns out, that was a huge mistake. The change to turn off the microphones when someone else was speaking backfired.
Under normal circumstances Trump and Biden would have bickered and Trump would have interrupted Biden. But as it turns out, Biden was allowed to speak without interruption and America was shocked to discover a secret cloaked for years by the mainstream media, that Biden was losing it cognitively.
Age impacts people differently, but America was able to see Biden unable to address the issues. Had he been interrupted by Trump, Americans would never have seen this "Biden-itis."
ABC News basically did the same thing with the single purpose goal of helping a better equipped Harris to engage Trump without losing her thoughts or stumbling over confusion.
The question Americans had was could Harris stand up to Trump. That's all the media wanted to help prove.
In fact, that was the outcome. Harris "won" the debate simply for being able to stand on her two feet and talk. Didn't matter what she talked about. She just could talk. And that is considered an achievement these days!
What we NEED to do is return to an objective and fair system that forces the candidates to speak to the issues that concern Americans the most. Issues like the horrible economy, the already high inflation rate (which relatively looks like it is falling), rising crime (which also relatively looks like it is down), stopping the illegal entry of foreign nationals into this country and forcing them to go through a legal system, our failing schools, healthcare challenges, and, the increasing international conflicts that are sucking up all of our tax dollars and armaments.
Most importantly, we need to force our candidates to speak to how they would bring Americans together to bridge the ugly, emotional and destructive polarization that has created two "ugly Americas" in this beautiful land that we stole by force, deceit and carnage from the Native Americans.
There is a way to do that.
First, allow ALL of the presidential candidates to speak who have substantive followings. Dr. Jill Stein and the Green Party have proven over and over again that they have measurable appeal among American voters. That's why the Democrats are so busy working against the fundamentals of the American Constitution to silence Jill Stein's voice.
Second, force each debate to address two or three major issues, requiring each candidate to outline how they would address and improve the issue being discussed.
There is a desperate need to address the worsening economy.
Addressing specific issues was a characteristic of past debates which were so much more informative and about the issues, not the personalities of the media or the journalists themselves who constantly try to insert themselves into the debates to help off-set their falling ratings and popularities.
Third, tell the news media to shut the fuck up! Stop injecting themselves into the stories and step back and allow the candidates to argue the facts. If one candidate says something that is "not true," the other candidates -- not the news media -- should be addressing those facts.
The news media should be REPORTING what happens not CREATING what happens.
In fact, I would require the news media to broadcast the debates, but eliminate journalists from the questioning panels. Instead, pick industry professionals accepted by all sides to ask the questions. The nation's top economists, for example, would be the panel members asking the questions.
But let's be honest. The election on November 5, 2024 is NOT about the interests of the public. It's not about solving problems. It is about salvaging a broken political system consisting of the wreckage of the Republican and Democratic political parties that have been compromised by dark money and personal profits.
Politicians no longer run to champion public rights. They run for national office to become millionaires.
America needs to set aside the partisan bullshit, force the politicians to speak to their issues, and solve our problems.
That means including third party voices that can help keep the major party candidates from drifting away from the important issues.
No one expects a third debate to be any better than the last two.
If we were serious about needing to address the economy, crime, rampant illegal immigration, abortion and women rights, we would change what we are doing.
But neither the Republicans nor the Democrats want to change anything. They are happy to hold their voter base together and spend all their time attacking the other side personally.
The way things are going, no one will actually "win" the election on Tuesday, Nov,5, 2024. Harris and Trump will just try to get want they want for themselves.
And the news media doesn't give a damn either way. Conflict, hatred, violence and suffering is what "sells newspapers." Happiness and success don't earn a penny.
Start with a lottery on which tv channel will host then a lottery on three panelists then a lottery of ten preselected questions and pick three by lottery
No hanky panky and do not allow facial jewelry ( there was some doubt that Harris was being fed responses in her earrings which looked closely like earphones available)