By OLIVIA IANNONE
Staff Writer
On Monday night, I did something that singled me out from the ranks of the aspiring journalists of CHS. I arrived home at 8:30 pm, ate dinner, took a shower, did my homework, glanced at the presidential debate on my TV for a couple seconds and then went to bed.
Maybe this short-lived indulgence was a bad way to prepare myself for life as a “Well-Informed, Responsible US Citizen.” But after my two previous attempts to listen to the candidates’ cleverly worded insults and half-truths, I decided it was time to stop kidding myself and get some sleep instead.
The truth is, the more I pay attention to presidential politics, the more I hate it. And the presidential debate is a boiled-down version of all the absolute worst qualities politics has to offer.
I don’t think it’s possible to come away from a presidential debate any better informed than you were going in. Every statement out of both candidates’ mouths is twisted at least a little to make them look more appealing.
In fact, they are so well versed at making themselves look good that a viewer’s brain practically tears itself to pieces trying to figure out the situation. Pinpointing how both of the candidates could possibly be right at the same time is mind-boggling to say the least. In the end, the viewer is forced to do one of two things: either side with the better arguer, or default on preconceptions they had before the debate.
Neither of these options helps anyone figure out who would be a better president. What citizens need to make an educated choice are pure facts, and the “facts” fed to us during these recent debates are anything but pure. It would take hours – days, even – to unspin what the candidates are spewing and translate it into honest, balanced information. I, for one, do not have that kind of time.
Presidential debates also do a phenomenal job of highlighting how vicious and polarized politics is at its heart. It’s kind of painful to watch the two candidates attack each other under the thin guise of intellectualism and courtesy. Sometimes, it seems as if the debate’s function isn’t to inform the people, but to give the two top dogs of the pack a chance to fight one-on-one for the position as the alpha male.
If one imagines some of their exchanges with the addition of a few expletives and a sneer, the rhythm of the conversation becomes much less alien. Watching debates in the past, I’ve often found myself irrationally wishing that the candidates would just drop their pretenses already and start swinging at each other.
With every debate, the rift that divides right from left in modern US politics becomes a little deeper, and the facts both sides offer become more and more distorted. The viewer is left to pick a side and follow in blind faith, or stay neutral and remain frustratingly confused.
Since I don’t like to be either blind or frustrated, I’ve stopped watching the debates. Even with the many solutions that the candidates propose, all they are really doing is accentuating the inherent problem of politics, and that is something I don’t need to witness.