[us_politics] Debatetopia

On the eve of the first scrimmage in the Battle for the Airwaves, I found remarkable something I found whilst just-so-happeening-to-read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death.

I've always felt that the modern penchant for Presidental-campaign debates was founded on the example of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. We actually have a modern version of this paradigm.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates occurred, of course, in a time before there was a true mass media. Lectures in those days were very popular and very big business, and people flocked to them.

Moreso for the debates. The format wasn't rapid-fire, question-answer-rebuttal. Typical format was: One party gave a position, in a speech lasting an hour and a half. The answer to that was an hour long speech, and the first party was allowed an addition half hour to respond.

That's three hours of political entertainment.

But before that it was even longer. Postman relates a story of how Lincoln and Douglas were in debate before the historic seven-event series that we're all taught about in school. In this case, Douglas lectured for three hours, and when it was Lincoln's turn to take the podium, he mentioned that, since it was 5 p.m., it would perhaps be a better idea for the event to adjourn for dinner so that the audience would return rerfreshed and relaxed for his own answer of similar magnitude.

It would seem that there was a similar attitude of circus. Souvenirs and trinkets were hawked, small side shows were apparently staged, and alcohol was available.

Compare and contrast between now and then. See how far we've come?