U.S. Political Debates

Just a brief interlude from recent topics, because I want to make a comment about political debates in the U.S.

Since now it is not possible to accommodate any diversity of opinion within either political party, debates no longer serve the purpose of setting forth candidates' positions on the issues.  However, as I watched the Republican debate last night, I thought about how well debates function as a means of consolidating and propagating ideology.  When the same ideas are expressed repeatedly by all candidates, and in nearly identical terms, those ideas are more likely to seem right and common sensical.  Even the most intelligent people are more apt to draw on the discourses that already surround them rather than create their own anew.  Thus, just by sheer repetition these political soundbites become embedded in the popular conscious and dominate the way people think and talk about the social order.  We hear the politicians stress over and over that government is not able to create and innovate as well as the "private sector" and consequently we take this "truth" for granted.  We don't consider how this distinction is tautological, as "private sector" is defined merely as that which is not "government," even if differences in substance do not apply.  We do not think about how corporations run the government, and how government has only ever existed as a tool of the dominant/wealthy.  And as a result, we accept an explanation of social problems that is based on nonsensical categories and nonexistent relationships.

Of course, it is clear that the moderators are totally in on the game, as the quality of their questions only encourage these prefabricated, thoughtless answers.