1,2,3,...13 Republican Debates

We’ve probably all watched some sort of political debate on television at some point in our lives, and I’ll be the first to say I’ve never sat through an entire one. Debates can be somewhat interesting for a short amount of time. They’re also a good way to find out about a candidate and their policies, but it’s usually only a short amount of time before they start going in circles and begin personally attacking each other. The sad thing is that this even happens when the candidates are supposed to be on the same side, like in the Republican primaries for the 2012 Presidential election. Another thing politicians have become really good at is answering questions with a lot of words, but saying nothing.

There have already been thirteen televised debates for the Republican primary, and we have barley started actually voting. After watching bits of some of the debates it seems like they’re going absolutely nowhere. One would think that the candidates would try to be as best prepared as possible and make sure they had their facts straight so their points could be valid and give the American people insight into their polices and how they plan to run the office if they’re elected, but all too often we don’t even get valid or correct information. In an article by Calvin Woodward on Yahoo, he highlights the frequent mistakes and stretches of facts the candidates have been using in recent debates such as Mitt Romney not giving President Obama credit for a recent large trade agreement, or Gingrich not knowing the facts about a retirement system he wants to put into effect.

Probably the thing I hate the most about political debates is actually what give them their entertainment value. Without a doubt if you watch a debate for long enough you will see some sort of argument, whether friendly or heated. It seems like in every debate there are productive comments and actual points being made, but they always seem to run out, then it turns to who can they make look the worst. These men and women are supposed to be debating for the same side. Technically they’re not even very apart on their political ideas, but they still find ways to completely attack and destroy each other. This video is a perfect example of how each candidate has no respect for what the other is trying to say and only wants to make sure they come out of the question looking like their on the winning side of the argument. Even though I must admit that watching arguments in political debates is entertaining, it dramatically takes away from the unity they should have in the party and divides people who are on the same side of politics.

All in all I’d say that political debates offer very good incentives and have some rewards, but they are vastly over used. Thirteen debates are just way too many. The debates have only started to create heated arguments between same party candidates and voters, and forced us to go in circles around the same issues. I still think there should be debates and think they give a lot of good information about candidates, but please can we have a little more moderation.