Don't let candidates for office dodge debates

BY ROD MILLER

We’re at great risk of losing one of our oldest and most cherished political traditions, folks.

By that I mean honest, legitimate debate among candidates. The kind with real give-and-take, questions and answers, point and counterpoint, intellectual jousting among candidates who are doing their best to convince us to vote for them to go to Cheyenne or Washington and, well, debate.

The instructive mano a mano and tete a tete that characterized political discourse from Lincoln/Douglas to Nixon/Kennedy to Bentsen/Quayle has been replaced

Debates like Lincoln-Douglas are being lost from our political landscape.

by (if we’re lucky enough to get even that) glorified sound bites presented in sterile settings in front of a tame media and complacent audiences.  

Voters are being cheated out of opportunities to see how candidates can think on their feet, how they command facts, how they respond to rhetorical attacks with rational counter-argument. In short, voters are being cheated out of a chance to see how a candidate would perform if her or she is elected to debate the great issues of the day on the floor of our representative bodies.

We, as citizens, should be much more demanding of our candidates. We should insist that anyone seeking office present themselves as something more than domesticated parrots who have memorized the party line and who fall back upon glib party slogans when challenged.

We alsoshould demand that candidates show up for real debates, prepared to defend their positions with civility and intelligence. And we should publicly shame any candidate who avoids this responsibility. (Incumbents, this means you particularly.)

Voters should hold the feet to the fire of our news media and political organizations so that they step out of their comfort zones and safe places and organize and conduct political debates that deserve the name.

Wyoming is a small enough state that no candidate should get a free pass for political cowardice. 

If we, as voting citizens, are unwilling to demand this of our candidates, then we have abrogated our responsibilities and we deserve to be represented by people who are afraid to debate in public. We will end up with elected representatives who rely upon massive media buys funded by out-of-state corporations and PACs instead of relying upon their own intelligence, political courage and willingness to stand on their own two feet in front of us.

So here’s a challenge. This election cycle, let’s not be satisfied with what candidates for office spoon-feed us from their policy books nor with their attacking their opponents from a safe distance.

Let’s let them know, in no uncertain terms, that if they don’t climb into the ring, put some skin in the game and duel it out in legitimate political debates in front of their friends and neighbors, that we won’t give them our vote nor even the time of day.

Rod Miller is a citizen, father and grandfather and a proud former Wyoming Outlaw living in Cheyenne.