I got a nice letter from MoveOn asking me to participate in a new instant debate response plan. I understand the idea, but I can't see how it will bring about the major political and social changes that we need. Debate spectacles are mostly bread and circuses to distract us. Here's my response:
I like MoveOn, but not your idea about instant debate responses and comments. People like to watch debates and hope for slips, such as Jerry Ford’s 1976 Poland comment. However their positive claims are often hot air. Consider Obama, a careful and moderately successful president (in spite of shameful opposition from 2009 on, much of which was racially motivated). Many of his campaign promises were never implemented because of Congressional opposition, such as closing Guantanamo. His campaign words diverged from his actions on trade agreements.
If Democrats like Clinton and Sanders talk about raising taxes and instituting real gun or ammunition control (I favor both) they must answer- how will you do this in the face of a hostile Congress? It’s possible that Democrats may regain majority position in the Senate, but not in the House. Talking about my plan says “Congress is not a problem”.
Political debates are spectacles, too much like the Super Bowl. Historian Daniel Boorstin’s book The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961) first to called attention to pseudo-events. Boorstin saw America living in an "age of contrivance," in which illusions and fabrications had come to dominate society. Public life was filled with "pseudo-events" – staged, scripted and entertaining pseudo-events planned for recording and used to promote political goals. Campaign debates preceded TV, but were mostly media events even then. You can’t tell from the Republican debates, which, if any of them, would act, on climate change, inequality, insane violence or the many young black men killed by American police (there’s a video of Matthew Ajibade, a mentally ill black man who was taken to jail against his family’s wishes and then treated brutally, Savannah police tasering his genitals). These things will be hard to change; powerful people will resist. Donald Trump has already put us into circus mode, saying that he will tweet about the debate. Don't join the circus.
Read change requires action against corporate dominance and corporate malfeasance. That’s hard to imagine when our media are so solidly pro-corporate (for example, two recent NPR programs discussed the Volkswagen emissions fraud, considering the PR problem for the company- how would you advise the company to repair their image? They never mentioned the need for protection from corporate malfeasance. Of course, CBS, Fox News, etc. were even worse). Most Americans accept the naive concept of “the free market” as gospel. Most assume that a bigger GDP must be a good thing.
Concentrating on the Presidential horse race now is shameful. Yes, a Democratic President offers us a different Supreme Court but that’s not enough. Why do we get such bad choices? Why is Congress under corporate control? Everyone should vote. I vote for the least dangerous candidates, but if that’s all I do, I do very little to help my country, my children and grandchildren. How can we change the political culture? That’s a local question, not a national question. We can’t solve it with New York Times ads or tweets about the debates. I oppose anything that distracts voters from the critical issues ahead.
We need slow thinking (see Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow) sustained for months and years driven by face to face contact.
Here's the MoveOn email: Our new chief technology officer has built a "snap poll" that allows us to ask you live questions about the debate as it's happening—and allows you to answer in real time. It then adds up the responses of MoveOn members around the country and shows our community's collective response, all in real time.
I will say that the Vegas debate made a nice contrast with the hateful anti-science atmosphere of the Republican debates. However, talking about debate winners and losers lets us off the hook of persuading others to help change the country.