DECCAN HERALD
One of the few bipartisan traditions left in American politics is hating on the presidential debates. They’re never substantive enough, the moderators always intervene too much or too little, and they have little effect on voters. Who needs ‘em? So …
So reports that President Joe Biden and Donald Trump are contemplating skipping this year’s edition, put on by the Commission on Presidential Debates every four years since 1988, are hardly surprising. Trump didn’t participate in any Republican primary debates either, and the Republican National Committee withdrew from the debate commission two years ago. Biden has declined to commit to its 2024 schedule.
It is left to me to … well, if I can’t quite defend the debates, I can at least say this: We’ll miss them when they’re gone. The only thing worse than presidential debates may be a campaign without them.
Of course, American democracy long predates the tradition of televised presidential debates.
And the tradition itself had a rough start. Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy famously faced off in 1960, but Lyndon Johnson saw no need to risk a debate in 1964. Nixon, with a commanding lead and embittered by his prior debate experience, likewise declined to debate in 1968 and 1972. It wasn’t until 1976, with a matchup between President Gerald Ford and challenger Jimmy Carter, that the modern debate era begins.
