Consequences and the Modern Political Debate

 Beloveds, oh, my beloveds.

I have tried to watch and live-tweet the vice presidential debate going on as we speak. I couldn't. I was annoyed when Kamala Harris wasted her opportunity to tell America what a Biden/Harris administration  would do about COVID-19 on Day 1 by rehashing the current administration's complete lack of competence thus far.

On the other hand, I couldn't look away. It reminds me too much of my days as a rookie teacher in a special ed classroom for emotionally disturbed kids. The first year always sucks, I don't care who you are or how prepared you thought you'd be. It's awful. And I lost control of my classroom on more than one occasion. That's what's happened to Susan Page tonight, and it's what happened to Chris Wallace last week.

That's right, I'm gonna stand up for the moderators. Because the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) gives them less power than a substitute teacher gets.

The problem is that the CPD gives their moderators no consequences to enforce during the debates. They didn't used to need them, but they need them desperately now. Political candidates, as we've seen time and again in the last 20 to 30 years, will run right over journalists, leaving them flattened like Wile E. Coyote, and the American people absolutely disgusted.

No consequences. Consequences are the spoken or unspoken repercussions that are invoked when someone breaks rules. There are consequences to all social interactions. Ironically, President Trump gets that better than anyone. That's why his staff is so damn scared of him. They put a foot wrong and bad things happen. 

How does this relate to the debate? Like I said: the moderator has less than no power. They can't make anything bad happen to debaters who break the rules. No score is kept, so no points can be docked. They can't cut the mikes--the stage manager running the production in the booth not only does not answer to the moderator, but it's more like the moderator answers to the SM. They can't call an end to the debate. All the moderators have got is the strength of their personalities to pit against the strength of a personality running for high public office. It was never going to be a fair fight.

What these debates need, and I really hope you're listening CPD, is a special ed teacher. The journalists have got to go. They're trained to blend into the background, and these debates need a moderator who can hold their own with people who think they're qualified to be the leader of the free world. For preference, such a moderator would be a veteran special ed teacher who has worked with adolescents with special emotional needs, with at least 10 years of evaluations at the Satisfactory level or better. If you're interested in giving me a special Christmas present, CPD,  a New York City teacher would be awesome.

Why? Because consequences are the currency of every single teacher on the planet. They will invoke consequences swiftly, coolly, and definitively. Why special ed/emotionally disturbed kids? Seriously, you've gotta ask?

But even more importantly, CPD, you must give your journalistic moderators some kind of power in these debates. They have nothing they can do, short of screaming down someone they or their colleagues will one day need to get access to. The power to cut the mikes is essential. And you have to give them the ability to end the debate. Three strikes, you're out, and your opponent gets the balance of the time. CPD, are you really telling me that avoiding treading on the delicate feelings of the likes of Donald Trump and Mike Pence is more important than ending the national horror show that was broadcast last week? Sparing their egos is more important than having a balanced and fair debate? And it goes both ways--there have been plenty of times that Kamala Harris has run over time, and she's dodged her share of questions. But she has not openly flouted the rules of the debate and treated the moderators with the level of disrespect of Trump and Pence.

Like I said: a substitute teacher has more power than Page and Wallace got. As a result, we got the absolutely useless spectacles masquerading debates we've gotten. We are lesser for it, and our country suffers because of it.