Posted on 03/31/2016 10:39:08 AM PDT by dvan
Are the rest of you as disgusted as I am with the current political process? This began over a year ago and has cost millions of dollars while no end is in sight. In fact we are no closer to having even a nominee for President.
Wouldn't it be possible to host the debates on CSPAN as table discussions that could be run without the attacks and disputes that are fostered on the Media television channels? Wouldn't this be a more sensible way to present the candidates and their opinions? It could also eliminate the millions of dollars of fundraising.
I realize that this is an idea that has little chance of taking place,
No, because CSPAN does not sell ads.
I used to be a C-SPAN junkie until January 20, 2009 and their hosts were already increasingly heading left at that time so I’m not sure how much of a solution that would be.
Good points. And the cable and networks have made a ton of $$$ of this circus thus far. Leaving aside the fact that they are almost entirely liberal and Democrat leaning, isn’t it a conflict of interest that they make more money with more viewers - and they get more viewers with more of this “gotcha” style nonsense?
I think up to 10 REAL DEBATES on C-SPAN (limited moderation, Lincoln DOuglas style) would be a much better public service.
Don’t hold you breath.
The debates this year have been abhorrent. I agree, the idea that these networks drive the debates and get to hype them up for ratings and moderate is just wrong. They should be locally hosted with a mix of local and national moderators. If they air on a network fine. But the network should not have sole control. It’s a damn circus.
The slug fests themselves are getting boring. Roundtable discussion would be about as interesting as Sunday morning TV political shows.
The first debate was on economic issues. Arthur Laffer was the captain of Reagan's team, I forget the captain of Carter's team, and Mitch Rogovin was the captain of John Anderson's team. Each captain determined who on his team would go in to make or answer a point. There was cross-questioning, rebuttal and counter-rebuttal. One of my favorite memories was Art Laffer taking the ball himself, going up the middle, and eviscerating Rogovin on tax policy.
In the foreign policy debate, Al Haig, captain of the Reagan team, sent Paul Nitze in to sack Paul Warnke and his appeasement-based foreign policy. It was a sight to behold.
These were honest debates, conducted within a strict set of rules, and I learned more from them than I learned from listening to the candidates. I suspect it was the spontaneity of the debates that frightened off the two party establishments.
During call-ins the Democrats get away with calling in on the Republican line.
And there would be plenty of air time for one-on-one match-ups. Trump vs. Cruz one day, Trump vs. Kasich on another, Cruz vs. Kasich on a third, etc.
From there, the vidoes could be posted to YouTube for anyone without cable access.
“we are no closer to having even a nominee for President.”
Come now! Trump & Clinton are the likely nominees by far, subject only to their own party operatives revolting.
Why didn’t you publish this brilliant idea a year ago, when the whole process could have been fixed? Too late now.
The primaries are run by two big clubs, not by the government.
I think there would be too many 3rd party kook candidates that would demand to be included to make things “fair” and it would devolve into meaningless claptrap.
So that would be bad?
The conclusion of the default process? It won’t be all bad. With rent-seeking regulators absent and no longer paid monstrous salaries, real rebuilding and production will finally resume after these decades of stagnation.
Many more people will suffer, though. It will probably be inevitable with so much debt and steeply rising commodities prices again in the near future, but I don’t enjoy seeing it. Quite a few bad policy decisions have been made by influential constituents behind all levels of government over the past 40 years or so.
Private property rights are being outlawed at every level (not only the federal). We’re not producing enough. That’s going to cost us all.
What do you think? I’ve been in a rural area. Things might look different where you are.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.