On October 15, the University of Delaware was the location for a debate for Delaware’s U.S. House seat. Four candidates are on the ballot: Democratic incumbent John Carney; Republican Rose Izzo; Libertarian Scott Gesty; and Green Party nominee Bernard August. Two weeks before the event, Republican nominee Izzo said she would not attend. Nevertheless, the debate sponsors refused to invite the Green and Libertarian, and went ahead with only Carney in attendance. See this story.
Debates among candidates for single-winner election districts are destructive because one person is trying to be better than all others.
When political candidates get together, it can and should be to discuss issues of agreement and to find things to accomplish for the whole team; the voters in their district. To do that, you split free speech time and you have an agenda of proposals to accomplish.
The whole promotion of debates is destructive to unity and that’s why we need to forget about fighting when there are so many good things to work towards.
I don’t agree with those promoting debates and I question the promoter’s interest, knowledge and ability in unity generation.
The promoters of political debate simply do not understand how unity is achieved as demonstrated by their actions.
The anemic state of third parties and independents, as well as unifying concepts by the Ds and Rs in politics, is not being served well by such poorly thought out events and by those promoting division and conflict.
The organizers should be held accountable and replaced with people interested in constructive, inclusive team-building events for the voters and not so much the “us vs them” and “I’m better than you” themes in conflicts.