THE (NOT SO) GREAT DEBATE

OCTOBER 17, 2019 – I watched snippets of Tuesday evening’s “debate” among 12 Democrats running for their party’s nomination for president. Snippets were all I could handle.  Here’s why:

For many election cycles, presidential “debates” have been a platform for policy billboards pushing non-existent products.  Moderators, commentators, and we the people have become swept up and sucked in by this process, which is divorced from reality.

Let’s take healthcare insurance as an example.  The debate treatment can be summarized this way:

Warren (and other “progressives”): “I’m for Medicare for all, which Republicans would call ‘socialized medicine,’ forgetting that since 1965, we’ve had exactly that in place for people 65 and older, many of whom vote . . . Republican.”

Klobuchar (and other “moderates”): “How ya gonna pay for it? My plan is solid, and it’s gonna bring people together, and we’re gonna pay for it. Vote for me, or settle for another four years of nonsense.”

Both positions amount to “space walks.”  They are untethered from earth-based legislative reality. They provide no insight into how the candidates will select and manage future political advisors, policy wonks, and Capitol Hill arm-twisters through a process that:

• Takes a server-farm worth of reliable empirical data into account;
• Crafts language of a 1,000-page proposed bill, which, if actually read, could be understood by an average American—or, for that matter, by a way above average American;
• Presents the proposed White House bill to House and Senate and at the same time:
• Takes the outline of the bill on a road show to inform and convince the public that they should support the bill—enthusiastically;
• Jaw-bones, lapel-grabs, back-slaps, threatens, cajoles, arm-twists, and horse-trades to get House and Senate versions of a semi-recognizable form of the original White House version through committee (House and Senate), onto the floor and through each side of the Capitol, then through conference committee, then to the Oval Office for signature—all before another whole generation qualifies for . . . Medicare!

But moderators put no candidate to the test. Nor do we the voters. Half of us were asleep, making paper airplanes, or thinking about Friday’s football game during high school civics class. Few voters (except naturalized citizens?) remember or ever learned how laws are enacted, implemented/enforced, or interpreted.

We vote for the candidate who says that he or she is “gonna do [such-and-such],” implicitly with the aid of a magically omnipotent scepter.

And if a candidate fails to deliver after anointment? He (so far) is deemed a “liar.” Naive and impatient, we fall for the non-politician with a fictional “business background,” who “knows how to get things done”—revealing our ignorance not only of politics but of business and the distinction between flim-flam and actual accomplishment.

Speaking of business—we need to make it our business to understand how politics and government work under our constitutional framework and institutions.

But first we need to acknowledge that we live in a complex world in which exist no simple solutions, only intelligent choices.

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© 2019 Eric Nilsson