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September 26, 2016LeBron James offers a personal angle to current protests
September 26, 2016Tonight is the first Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, but you probably shouldn’t watch it. It’s up against Monday Night Football with the Falcons taking on the Saints. Cleveland Indians fans have Corey Kluber facing off against the Tigers in Detroit with the magic number sitting at one. Even if you don’t want to watch either of those games, load up a mini-Netflix marathon or something. For most people, there is no point in watching the Presidential debate.
The go-to response when I ask people why they are going to watch is usually, “I want to be informed.” It sounds nice, but this is a little white lie people tell themselves to hide from the fact that they want to watch two people figuratively spit at each other. If you’ve learned anything over the years from watching debates, it’s the last place to go to get “informed” of anything of substance. The networks kowtow to a bunch of supposed “undecideds” that just can’t seem to find the differences between diametrically opposed people with diametrically opposed views. It’s hard to believe.
More specifically, what are you going to learn about Hillary Clinton that you don’t already know? Hillary Clinton has been under a bright political spotlight since her husband Bill took office in January of 1993. That’s nearly a quarter century of activity and subsequent media coverage as she’s been investigated, elected, appointed, investigated some more, and then examined by the media again. Whether or not you like or dislike Hillary Clinton – and I don’t care whether you do or not – there’s almost zero chance you are going to learn something substantially new about her tonight when she debates Donald Trump.
Speaking of The Donald, you aren’t going to learn anything new about him either. We’ve seen the way he carries himself in public since the 1980’s. We’ve seen him on television with his reality TV show. We’ve heard him on promotional tours for a variety of products and projects with stops on The Howard Stern Show, Opie and Anthony, SNL, The Tonight Show, and David Letterman. We’ve now seen him run for POTUS twice and most recently followed along via media deluge for the better part of two years. This is a guy we’ve seen hanging out with the McMahon family at Wrestlemania. Just like Hillary, whether you like Donald Trump or not – and again, I don’t care if you do or do not – there’s almost zero chance you are going to learn something substantially new about him when he debates Hillary.1
There’s a supposed entertainment factor to watching these two harass the moderator and each other, but it’s a low form of entertainment on par with the mindless drama of a Housewives show on Bravo. I understand wanting to watch for big moments before they hit YouTube, but don’t confuse yourself into thinking it’s going to help you make a decision. And, like a Browns’ game, there’s a good probability that it will fail to entertain you and just make you angry or sad.
For most of us, there’s no point. Chances are high that you already know exactly how you feel about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Chances are high that you already know exactly how you’ll vote when you get in that booth to exercise your right this election season. So, if you’re just hate-watching this thing to be snarky on Facebook or Twitter, let me ask you this question. What are you trying to accomplish?
If you’re a fan of one of these candidates, presumably you want one of them to win, correct? Presumably, you want more people to come to your side to help improve your chances of seeing your candidate win the electoral college. You might even want some people from the opposition party, who would normally vote against your candidate, to go against their own pre-disposition, and “hold their nose” while supporting your candidate, right?
Do you think that is more or less likely with you doing a bunch of smug hate-tweeting? Do you think you’ve come up with some irresistibly pithy mockery of one of the candidates for your Facebook timeline that it will serve to welcome people to your side? Or is that tactic more likely to entrench them in their traditional team views? There’s a better chance of turning Josh McCown into the Browns’ long-term solution at QB than there is of you winning people over with fart-sniffing smuggery splatted into their faces on the internet. Plus anything you can think of that might be funny will have already been said with so many people bumping their heads on their way to the same jokes about the same subject material.
You might as well watch Monday Night Football or the Indians, because all of the options – including the debates – are just team sports. People are born Republican or Democrat. Some people find an occasion in their lives to switch sides or occasionally vote for a candidate or an issue beyond that traditional party line. It doesn’t happen frequently, but it can occur.
Hell, we’ve even seen Browns fans get so fed up with them since 1999 that they start rooting for the Steelers. I know one guy personally. It didn’t happen because a bunch of Steelers fans trashed the Browns. His girlfriend is from Pittsburgh, and he finally tired of pushing that orange and brown wagon up the hill only to have it topple over and drag him back down again.
Meanwhile, his Steelers-fan girlfriend didn’t brow-beat or tell him his team sucked. She didn’t have to bother. She didn’t care about the Browns or their fans. She was too busy rooting for a team that beats the Browns consistently, year in and year out. You can judge my friend all you want – and I do – but he switched sides, and I’m at least willing to try and understand the dynamics at play. No amount of Steeler fan snark would goad a Browns fan into waving a terrible towel. In fact, it’s the opposite. It would only serve to cement them in their historically horrendous team that much more. Trust me. I know this to be true.
So, if you think the other side is so terrible, horrible, misguided and maybe evil – like the Steelers – your best bet is to shut up and hope the “fans” of that team figure it out and come to your side. And also hope that your side isn’t the Browns in this comparison.
I hope I’ve convinced you to not watch the debates. You don’t need to do that to yourself, and the big moments will wind up on YouTube or Vine. You know you’re not getting informed and chances are you’re hurting your stated self-interest in seeing the candidate of your choosing win the race come election day.
Julio Jones and Corey Kluber await your eyeballs.
- And there aren’t even any third party candidates who got an invite. [↩]
8 Comments
Love how you are explaining it is best to STICK TO SPORTS in a post diving outside that realm. It is fantastic usage and a great overall message throughout.
It’s not that I disagree with anything written here. But as a government teacher of just over a hundred high school seniors, I’ll be watching for the sake of (hopefully) finding some value in the whole exercise. Even offering those students interested a place to discuss things live if they wish, hoping to provide an atmosphere away from the twitter snark. However, I guarantee nothing when it comes to my personal twitter account.
i did watch the debate last night , already knowing who i’m voting for … i guess i wanted to see how low each of them would go.
the only bad thing about the debate is it was commercial-free … but i still would be clicking to the Tigers/Indians game & the MNF game periodically to see what was going on.
i salute you … i wonder how teachers are going to feel if the minimum wage goes to up to $15 per hour & what a kid at McDonalds makes versus what teachers are making ?? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aded781eceb869c2fa2e0d1d16177ae096ed2c6842d31154fd465333d84e8e5f.jpg
I really appreciate this. Wish I had read it last night. It would have reinforced my gut response to last night’s television options.
To the extent that these “debates” determine the outcome of a Presidential election (it’s arguable that they do, and I tend to think that since Kennedy/Nixon they have a far greater impact than they should – coinciding with the advent of mass media and the decline of independent thought), I maintain that this is the single most stupid way for an electorate to decide upon their chief executive. We have this notion that every election carries the importance of the Lincoln/Douglas election, and these silly exercises are couched in terms of the Lincoln/Douglas debates. Unfortunately, there is not a single person in the national political conversation that can hold a candle to Stephen Douglas, let alone that other guy.
I watched last night until I couldn’t watch anymore. It turns out, just like Craig prophesied, the one that I cannot stomach turned my stomach even more, while the one that I want to like failed to show me anything remotely likable. I’ll still vote for that one, because of broader values and principles of government (but recognizing that neither is Lincoln, neither is Douglas, the issues aren’t so pivotal anymore, and I will certainly be disappointed in 4 years, regardless of the November outcome).
The thing that I always need to remind myself is that the sun will rise tomorrow. And now, it will rise on a Central Division Champion in Cleveland. (Wish I could have watched that!)
Which Central Division champion in Cleveland? There are two such teams right now!
Exaaaaactly, Craig. I’m a bit of a politi-junkie and am reading the debate transcripts with fact-checking… But the debates are corporately sponsored trainwreck reality TV masquerading as intellectual discourse.
And I haaaaaaate trainwreck reality TV.
I went to see Kubo Two Strings, a fantastic, cultured & inspiring claymation film, and basked in the division championship glory our Indians achieved. ‘Twas a good Monday night.
Well I certainly can’t speak for all teachers, but the fact that there would be people making more than I do for a less demanding job?
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