I don’t watch the debates
I didn’t watch the first Obama-McCain debate. I didn’t watch the Palin-Biden debate — I caught maybe a minute or two by accident, then immersed myself in a vat of rubbing alcohol and promptly burned my clothes. I don’t intend to watch the next Obama-McCain debate if I can help it. And I probably can.
There are people who think it’s irresponsible to not watch the debates. “It’s your duty as a citizen to inform yourself.” Bullshit. I know what I need to know about all the jackasses running for president and vice-president. Their rehearsed sound bites aren’t going to tell me anything I don’t already know. The moderators’ dumb questions aren’t going to tell me anything I don’t already know. The evasions and half-truths and rhetorical flourishes aren’t going to tell me anything I don’t already know. And let’s stop calling them debates — they’re debates the way this is a Philly cheesesteak.
Most people I know watching these debates are doing so for entertainment, so they can poke fun at Palin for not answering the question and for winking or so they can catch Biden telling us all how great he is — it’s prep for them, so they’ll get the next opening sketch on Saturday Night Live. They watch so they can nod knowingly when they read that McCain didn’t look at Obama during the first debate. So they will have something to blog about. So they won’t feel left out of office chit-chat the next day. It’s the Super Bowl, without the excitement of a wardrobe malfunction. Most people are watching to have their views reinforced, so they can be even more confident that the other side is evil and stupid, so they can feel more secure in their moral and intellectual superiority. Those are reasons to watch, I’ll grant, and what people do for their own amusement and ego and to fit in with the crowd is their concern, not mine. Nothing wrong with entertainment. But don’t pretend that you’re being a responsible citizen by watching the debates, and I won’t pretend that I’m being a responsible citizen by watching The Amazing Race.
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Well said! I agree completely and have avoided the debates as assiduously as I avoided the movie Titanic. In fact, I take perverse pride in never having seen either of them.
“Most people are watching to have their views reinforced, so they can be even more confident that the other side is evil and stupid, so they can feel more secure in their moral and intellectual superiority.”
Dead on. I usually watch the debates because of professional obligations, but I am not saddened in the least that Nick Cave gave me an excuse to skip tomorrow night’s!
I watch the debates but I didn’t know it was about being a responsible citizen. I watch them more in the line of grim entertainment. You know, “where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.” (Jane Austen)
Not that I claim to be a true or any other kind of philosopher. Frankly, I think Tuesday night is a bad night for a debate, because it means no “House, M.D.” or “Fringe” until next week. Of course, next week it’s on Wednesday, which means ABC will cut “Pushing Daisies” and “Dirty Sexy Money.” Last week, on Thursday, they cut “The Office” for it. The first debate had the best time slot, on Friday.
The only view I get reinforced during these debates, though, is that both sides are sorely lacking and each debate is a lose-lose tie.
Scott,
Bit of an edge there, man. But, yeah, the truth is, every year I say that I’m not going to watch the Academy Awards and every year I watch them, mostly bored. I didn’t watch the debates until this year. You’re right, you don’t learn a thing about the candidates or about policy. It’s drama at its core, true, with the actors playing the same role over and over. The candidates sometimes look like mediocre method actors. No, it’s not a duty to watch the debates — and, no, they’re not debates at all. But leadership is a funny thing. Leaders or people seeking to be leaders are almost always fascinating creatures — you’re drawn to watch them, either to measure up to their own conception of leadership (which they tell us about) or our own. If they don’t measure up to our sense of what a leader is, we tend to laugh at them; if they surpass our conception of leadership, we tend to praise them. The attraction of the “debates,” once you sweep aside the pretense of examining views, is the entertainment value — yes — of watching two people try to embody some quality of leadership. I think.