Debate Prep
In the run up to Tuesday night’s debate in Dearborn, Michigan, reporters tried to tease out of the campaign how Senator Thompson had prepared, how many rehearsals he had been involved with, who (if anyone) had played the other candidates, and so on.
Without giving away any family secrets, I can tell you that I played the role of Chris Matthews in several of the sessions – a clear case of casting, as they say, against type.
A political debate has as much to do with a collegiate debate as Major League Baseball has to do with a major leak in your basement.
I was a debater in college. Briefly. It was way more hard work than I had signed up for and I went back to my principal extra-curricular activity: Trying to learn to like beer.
Prior to being a debater in the first semester of my sophomore year, I had been the coxswain on the freshman crew at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 45750. Over the summer I went from about 123 pounds to about 135 and my coxswaining days were over.
In the American debate system there is one question which every debate team must answer. Something like; “Resolved: That the United States should withdraw from NATO, SEATO, and FRITO and concentrate on domestic issues.”
Every debater on every team combs through the Internet looking for every article, reference, statement, or comment which deals with the issue – either in favor or in opposition.
Back in my day there was no Internet. In fact, desktop computers hadn’t been invented yet, so we spent hour after hour getting paper cuts in the library going through the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, the reference section, and any non-fiction book dealing with any aspect of the question.
Anything we found was typed onto a 3 x 5 index card and placed into an “evidence box” – a long metal index card holder – where the quotes and citations were indexed and cross-matched so that we could find any one on a moment’s notice and destroy, or at least counter, the other team’s argument.
When I say “we” I really mean the other members of the debate team who actually set foot inside the Dawes Memorial Library which I, in the course of my seven-and-a-half year undergraduate career, never actually did.
In the recent past, before cable news, the three major networks took debates seriously. A panel of respected reporters – journalists, they called them back in the day – would spend time thinking about the questions they would ask which would have the best chance to elicit a rational response, in turn, giving the viewers or listeners an insight into what a candidate thought about an issue and how he or she had arrived at that conclusion.
A modern political “debate” is more like a game show and an exercise in illumination:
“I’ll take ‘Entitlements’ for 20, Alex.”
“$72 Trillion”
“What is the total amount of entitlement spending expected over the next 75 years?”
“Correct! Circle gets the square.”
I know I mixed game shows, but you get my point.
Modern political debates will continue until the press corps quits showing up. When the press corps stops coming, so will the candidates and things will get back to normal.
But not in this election cycle.
The end of the story about my collegiate debating career is this: I was a junior varsity debater and, like the other JV debaters knew a lot about whatever the subject was my sophomore year. Varsity debaters knew everything about the subject.
Once in a while when my team found itself in a logical black hole, I would reach into the evidence box, pull out an index card – any index card – and, with a flourish read a quote from The Atlantic Forum Quarterly – Spring 1952 – “It has never been the collective wisdom of Western thinkers …” all of which I had made up on the spot.
Varsity debaters would have known there was no such journal as the Atlantic Forum Quarterly. JV debaters weren’t certain.
When I figured out I could get away with that …
I knew politics was for me.
Without giving away any family secrets, I can tell you that I played the role of Chris Matthews in several of the sessions – a clear case of casting, as they say, against type.
A political debate has as much to do with a collegiate debate as Major League Baseball has to do with a major leak in your basement.
I was a debater in college. Briefly. It was way more hard work than I had signed up for and I went back to my principal extra-curricular activity: Trying to learn to like beer.
Prior to being a debater in the first semester of my sophomore year, I had been the coxswain on the freshman crew at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 45750. Over the summer I went from about 123 pounds to about 135 and my coxswaining days were over.
In the American debate system there is one question which every debate team must answer. Something like; “Resolved: That the United States should withdraw from NATO, SEATO, and FRITO and concentrate on domestic issues.”
Every debater on every team combs through the Internet looking for every article, reference, statement, or comment which deals with the issue – either in favor or in opposition.
Back in my day there was no Internet. In fact, desktop computers hadn’t been invented yet, so we spent hour after hour getting paper cuts in the library going through the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, the reference section, and any non-fiction book dealing with any aspect of the question.
Anything we found was typed onto a 3 x 5 index card and placed into an “evidence box” – a long metal index card holder – where the quotes and citations were indexed and cross-matched so that we could find any one on a moment’s notice and destroy, or at least counter, the other team’s argument.
When I say “we” I really mean the other members of the debate team who actually set foot inside the Dawes Memorial Library which I, in the course of my seven-and-a-half year undergraduate career, never actually did.
In the recent past, before cable news, the three major networks took debates seriously. A panel of respected reporters – journalists, they called them back in the day – would spend time thinking about the questions they would ask which would have the best chance to elicit a rational response, in turn, giving the viewers or listeners an insight into what a candidate thought about an issue and how he or she had arrived at that conclusion.
A modern political “debate” is more like a game show and an exercise in illumination:
“I’ll take ‘Entitlements’ for 20, Alex.”
“$72 Trillion”
“What is the total amount of entitlement spending expected over the next 75 years?”
“Correct! Circle gets the square.”
I know I mixed game shows, but you get my point.
Modern political debates will continue until the press corps quits showing up. When the press corps stops coming, so will the candidates and things will get back to normal.
But not in this election cycle.
The end of the story about my collegiate debating career is this: I was a junior varsity debater and, like the other JV debaters knew a lot about whatever the subject was my sophomore year. Varsity debaters knew everything about the subject.
Once in a while when my team found itself in a logical black hole, I would reach into the evidence box, pull out an index card – any index card – and, with a flourish read a quote from The Atlantic Forum Quarterly – Spring 1952 – “It has never been the collective wisdom of Western thinkers …” all of which I had made up on the spot.
Varsity debaters would have known there was no such journal as the Atlantic Forum Quarterly. JV debaters weren’t certain.
When I figured out I could get away with that …
I knew politics was for me.
14 Comments:
Ah yes, if you can't baffle them with brilliance, befuddle them with B#!!S#(+.
I loved using the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. My then 8th grade Son and his friend were researching Muhammad Ali's Draft evasion for a school project and were amazed (well, a little impressed) at what I helped them find in the Reader's Guide.
Our local library still has a lot of original magazines in the stacks- including every Sports Illustrated and 50 years or more of Time and Newsweek. There is a feeling of connection with the moment when you are holding the printed magazine that internet and microfische lack.
Perhaps it's the ads for avocado colored appliances and the "All New AMC Matador!" .
imbCz2 Your blog is great. Articles is interesting!
sf2UMA Nice Article.
BcXWVE Please write anything else!
Wonderful blog.
actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.
Nice Article.
Good job!
Please write anything else!
Please write anything else!
Wonderful blog.
actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.
yP6Fdr Good job!
Please write anything else!
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