Discussion for article #237067
What an excellent idea.
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He’s right. We spend so much time listening to unchallenged reactionary spew that we become inured to it, and mistake it for ¨the way things are.¨ Thus, we (most of us) accept, or at least tolerate, the notions that America’s a center-right country; that the poor are poor because of a deficiency of character; that the rich are that way because of nothing but hard work; that for-profit businesses are always more efficient than government; that property rights trump the environment, etc. In this country, a person with ¨Socialist¨ after his/her name is scarier to most folks than some crazed fucker carrying an AK 47 through a Denny’s restaurant. We are seriously unhinged, and a lot of push back is called for.
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I’m skeptical. Although a laudable concept in theory, I’m willing to bet good money that such a debate would degenerate into a kind of surrealistic discomposure. For the Democrats involved, it would be like debating a room full of Sam Kinison impersonators on acid. Although, on the other hand, maybe that’s Bernie’s expectation and plan.
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Easy peasy, Bernie.
Change your registration to Republican and get ahead in the polls to the top ten.
You’ll get invited!
Worst case scenario, you’ll face Hillary in the General!
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Sorry Senator, the shadow puppet show planners would never ever accept your intellectual disruption of their sing-along events. On a positive note your challenge will go unanswered, making you much less vulnerable to R and D zingers.
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So am I. There is no group of humans better at debating-by-saying-nothing than Republicans. Bernie would be wasting his time. Moreover, the people watching and rooting for Republicans are not interested in the same things Bernie would be harping on: facts and logic.
In the summer of 2011, my wife and I were heading back home from her spread in Texas. I had a cowboy hat on myself, I was feeling so relaxed.
Until we checked into a motel for the night.
There we happened to tune into Lawrence O’Donnell attempt to “converse” with Marsha Blackburn on an important issue she knew practically nothing about.
Lawrence is smart, but Blackburn managed to dominate the conversation by either talking over him, grammatical detours, double-meanings, shifts in focus, theme changes and a host of other devices designed to say nothing while not allowing the other person to say ANYTHING.
I once saw this with another Right Winger years before Lawrence’s show. The guy said
NOTHING
But for the life of me, he managed to throw off his well-educated and VERY SMART questioner.
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This is just a bad idea in general. One of those “sounds good at first” kinda things that, in reality, would just degenerate into a mishmash of talking-point regurgitation, name-calling and general cross-talk. Remember, the Republican primary candidates include those that are too insane to even get their own party’s nomination, let alone have any sort of rational discourse with “fascist, communist, socialist, evil” Democrats.
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Chill the beer. Make the popcorn. If Bernie actually got this underway the ratings would skyrocket!
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Senator Sanders and Dr. Maddow actually addressed that- and she would love it if they would all just “go rogue” and go it anyway.
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Me too. But the very idea that cons get to call what they do on stage a “debate” brings a sobering perspective on the Senator’s proposal.
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“I think their agenda does not reflect more than 15 or 20 percent of the American people,”
Bernie’s great, but unfortunately I think he’s very mistaken here.
More importantly, among people who actually summon the huge amount of effort that’s necessary to get off one’s ass, get in the car, drive to the polling place, and endure the incredible hardship of standing in line for 20 minutes, the Republican Party’s support is easily north of 40%.
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A couple of years or so ago, he debated Michelle Bachman on CNN. It did not go as well as he seems to think it did.
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I think he recently debated a right winger - I believe it was just a couple of months ago…?
From what I remember, it did not go well then, either.
I think the problem is you can’t have a reasonable conversation with someone that insists talking points are facts. Then you have mods/pundits that won’t call the shit out for fear that Republicans won’t appear on their show/network again.
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Who would moderate such a debate. No doubt one of the very “journalists” who think political gossip, polling and fundraising questions are the only questions that matter.
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Any high school debate moderator would do nicely.
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Get Judge Judy as a debate moderator…
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The GOP has more candidates than they know what to do with without adding Democratic candidates to the mix.
Assuming Clinton gets the nod, maybe, just for fun, she should let Sanders be her proxy at one of the debates.
Oh my! 
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