Should i watch the debates

A follow-up family conversation can also introduce the topic of responsible and active citizen participation, and why being an informed citizen is essential to a healthy democracy. Watching the presidential debates together as a family is a great place to start.

Make an event of the presidential debates. In the pre-digital world, American families would bring hampers of food to munch on while they listened to presidential candidates argue and pontificate in public parks and forums. Sharing a bowl of popcorn and soft drinks would go a long way in making the current presidential debates palatable for all generations.

The debate goes down in history not only because it was the first of its kind. Experts argue it also proved how significant media exposure, especially television, can be in presidential campaigns. Sixty years later the debate has become a staple of presidential elections, and the event sometimes brings in blockbuster ratings. Before mass media, debates were one of the few opportunities for the public to hear from the candidates. But now, with an overabundance of exposure for years leading up to election night, the debates are no longer introductions to candidates.

Instead, they provide an uncontrolled setting where candidates can face off. And some of your staff say you were tired after your most recent encounter with Mr. Clinton was explaining that she planned to put more money into the Social Security program by raising taxes on the wealthy.

Few viewers watch entire debates in an engaged way, so the candidates will aim to dictate media coverage. Next-day news coverage is how most people will learn what happened. Lundberg said that with media as the primary filter, voters miss possible benefits of debates. Social media also filter results. McNeilly points to a Pew Research poll showing that Trump voters consider the economy, violent crime, immigration and gun control as the most important issues. However, he may attack Biden by saying Biden favors a national lockdown, which would constrain the economy.

He will say Biden is weak on crime and urban unrest while Trump represents law and order. McNeilly said that Biden will hit Trump on mishandling the pandemic and position Trump as being biased against minorities and as anti-immigration. Hetherington agreed.

People usually determine who won a debate by whether a candidate met or exceeded expectations, and those expectations are generally low, the experts said. Hetherington sees some potential parallels to the debates between George Bush and Al Gore. Therefore, he was kind of seen as the winner, regardless of what the scorecard shows. To illustrate the differences, he describes a post election discussion at the Kennedy School of Government.

They feel like they get a lot more mileage out of talking about details. Republicans approach a debate as about an opportunity to ping your base.