Pretty sure louder, meaner politics not what anyone wants

Last week’s presidential debate got my attention, as it did lots of folks on both sides of the political aisle.

It was so vile it was hard to watch, but like a train wreck our eyes were glued to the unfolding scene.

Ruminating on it I couldn’t help but compare it to the first presidential debate in my memory. It was 1976, the country was tired and divided over Watergate and Vietnam. Unemployment was soaring and we’d recently gone through an oil crisis and inflation was rampant.

Those are the things that correlate somewhat to the times we’re living in today.

The debates featured incumbent bumbling, stumbling Gerald Ford and Former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer, Sunday school teacher and southern gentleman.

I’m pretty sure I watched all three debates at coworker Kirby Rowan’s house. Kirby was Portales’ very own political pundit and a televised presidential debate was like his Super Bowl. We had fresh-brewed iced tea and popcorn and discussed the debate into the night.

The debate format back then included a moderator and a panel of media types asking the questions. They would direct questions at the particular candidate whose turn it was and he would have a certain amount of time to answer and then the other would have a slightly shorter time for rebuttal.

They took turns, just like most of us learned to do in grade school. They didn’t interrupt or call each other names (we learned that in grade school too).

One of the things I didn’t realize was that first series of televised debates I experienced was actually only the second set in history. The first televised one was the 1960 debate between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. Those listening on radio felt Nixon won. The television audience saw him as rough and sweaty and instead of looking into the camera while answering he looked sideways to the people off camera asking the questions. It burnished his already present moniker Tricky Dick and perhaps sealed his fate.

It’s no surprise that Nixon didn’t agree to debates later in the 1960s and President Lyndon Johnson led easily and apparently turned down debate offers.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to us that our presidential candidates would act like 2-year-olds. The political discourse each side receives on its respective pundit television network constantly stirs people up. They drag those “talking points” onto their social media of choice and puke them up to illicit more rancor on their own side and hopefully pick a fight. If you’re online it is seemingly impossible for most people to ignore so the noise level everywhere is out of sight.

Each successive election cycle and its debates seem to get louder and meaner.

Who knows what the coming scheduled debates will hold or if they’ll even happen now that President Trump has tested positive for COVID-19. I’m not sure of much, but I’m pretty sure louder and meaner is not what any of us really want.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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