I caught the recent Republican presidential debate on CNN the other night and came to the conclusion they serve no real purpose. Seven republican hopefuls stood in front of the cameras for two hours and told us nothing new, gave us nothing controversial, and said nothing worth pondering. It is not because they are republicans. I am certain if there was a republican in the White House, the democrats would have put on the same show.
The problem with these debates is they provide viewers with little new and only serve as an opportunity to give a national stump speech. Candidates rarely answered the questions they were asked. Instead, they rehashed those positions they want to get across to voters.
Instead of debates, why not just give them free television time to make a monthly fifteen minute speech on a specific topic? One month, candidates might be asked to speak about the economy, another education and so on. Let candidates get the information out to whoever is interested and be done with it. This allows all candidates the chance to go before potential voters without having to raise boat loads of money. Those that still want to raise cash and hit the campaign trail can do so but it will allow money to be less of a player in our election process.
Televised speeches can also be linked to instant national survey questions providing us with immediate feedback on what we thought of the speeches. Since the people who will watch these televised events are the ones most likely to vote in elections, it provides an accurate take on how Americans feel about each candidate.
To still rely on the same system of televised debates to elect candidates who do not stray from already known positions is like still relying on foreign oil to fuel our energy needs. Neither one is doing us any good so perhaps it is time to shake things up a bit.
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