I did not watch much of last night's debate. My mind is made up (at least for the primaries) and what I did see was the predictable back and forth. Moderator questions that were slanted and candidates trying to talk over one another. You cannot have a serious discussion about public policy with 10 people on a stage being given 30 seconds each to address complicated issues like health care or gun violence.
The one thing I did notice is that Democrats love playing by the rules. I am no fan of Bernie, but he at least called out one question as being framed as a "GOP talking point." Trump, and to a lesser extent, all Republicans in 2016, either ignored the questions asked or attacked the moderators. I don't know why Democrats do not do that. "Jake, there are 30 million people in this country without health insurance and Donald Trump is in court RIGHT NOW arguing that the ACA should be repealed, which would kick another 20 million people off their health insurance. We need to do something. We can argue over the plans, but this is consistently the biggest concern I hear on the campaign trail."
When you start getting into the fine points - on TV - it just gets reduced to a sound bite that further distorts the argument. Pundits grade these "debates" like American Idol anyway. Ultimately, I do not know if any of this matters, but whereas I used to relish nights like last night, now, I mostly ignore them.
Follow me on Twitter - @scarylawyerguy
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