Presidential Debate: Hailing the Dumbing Down of America -The iPINIONS Journal

I thought the media could do no more to champion style over substance in American politics. But the way they’re hyping the first debate of this presidential election has disabused me of that thought.

For I am truly stupefied that TV reporters and commentators are encouraging viewers to determine who wins not by the answers they give but by how they look giving them.

Indeed, no less a pundit than James Fallows of The Atlantic is encouraging viewers to watch this debate on Monday night … “with the sound turned off.” And everyone is citing the superficial precedent the media set by declaring JFK the winner of the first-ever televised presidential debate in 1960 simply because he looked better than his opponent, Richard Nixon

Hence the manifest absurdity of pundits prescribing, with gleeful anticipation, that Hillary’s main objective should be “to get under Donald’s skin;” whereas Donald’s should be to just stand there and “look presidential.”

Which means that, unless Hillary can get Donald to hurl tourette-like insults at her, she will lose. Her wordsmith answers to the critical questions facing the nation be damned.

And if Donald can get through the debate without acting like a spoiled, potty-mouthed brat, he will win. His word-salad answers to questions will be hailed as authentic, refreshing … entertaining.

Incidentally, nothing betrays the manufactured suspense afoot quite like the media propagating the big lie that this debate will help over 100 million voters decide who gets their vote. After all, not only are reporters and pundits hyping it as mostly entertainment, but polls routinely show that over 95 percent of voters have already made up their minds. Frankly, any voter waiting for this debate to decide between Hillary and Trump is like an alcoholic waiting for the weekend to decide between staying sober or getting drunk … respectively.

Meanwhile, these entertainment promoters masquerading as news reporters and commentators are suggesting that voters shouldn’t even bother watching the vice-presidential debate. And the reason they give, in blithe and even mocking spirits, is that Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine are just two “vanilla” guys who are going to be debating nothing but policy (i.e., too much substance over style).

In other words, it will be the kind of debate only intelligent voters would be interested in….

The science-fiction movie Idiocracy (2005) depicts an America 500 years in the future that has become so dumbed-down that intellectual and cultural Neanderthals are considered brainiacs and sophisticates. Well, truth is often stranger than fiction. And, in far too many ways, that future is now – as I have duly chronicled in “On Syria (and almost every other issue) the American People Are Insolent, Ignorant Idiot,” September 10, 2013, “A Rant about Stupid Voters re Grexit, Brexit, the NRA, and Trump,” July 19, 2016, and “Polls Show Americans Are Too Stupid to Poll on Any Critical Issue,” September 14, 2016.

So don’t be surprised if Trump “wins” the debate(s). But you should be shocked … and very afraid if he wins the election. I remain convinced, however, that, even in this “black swan” election year, the idiocy of Donald Trump as president-elect of the United States is too strange to come true.

* This commentary was originally published on Saturday, September 24, at 8:42 a.m.