Theater of the Absurd: CNN/YouTube Debate

If the founding fathers had any inkling of what went on last night, they would spinning in their graves. It has reduced me to despair, particularly when the focus groups on the various networks thought it was a marvelous format. That one left me spluttering.

Amongst the questions were one African American gentleman asking about reparations for slavery, one foreign policy maven asking whether the candidates would go meet with our sworn enemies in Cuba, Iran, Syria and the like, and two lesbians who wanted to know if the candidates would let them get married. Great theater, but poor journalism. Because in truth, CNN here abdicated its role as a knowledgeable broker.

Take the foreign policy question. Cuba is not interested in diplomacy. Castro has made clear that what he wants is unilateral surrender on the part of the US: drop the embargo, forget about human rights abuses, forgo demanding payment for seized American property. If you want to see the truth of such, examine his response to Spain, one of the greatest collaborators with his regime. Spain has been working on the regime's behalf to mend fences with the EU, so what was the response when the Spanish government sought in the gentlest of ways to discuss some of the human rights issues- a resounding slap. The questioner is obviously unaware of this or thinks that the regime which wanted to nuke out cities will suddenly do an about face and start singing Kum ba ya, as someone on Babalu suggested. One would hope that a real journalist asking a question would be aware of same.

The other problem I have stems from the format. As one news outlet pointed out the questions were personal, too personal I would say. We each have our individual concerns, but government exists for the many and cannot address ALL of our needs and wants. Any government policy invariably leaves out or hurts some segment of the population. But as a society, we no longer accept that as a given. We are rapidly becoming the government of the exception for the exception. Oh, minus smokers and CubanAmericans, it's okay to trash them. They are not politically correct.

When you have the individual putting a question to the candidates, it removes the answer from the realm of politics. If the candidate were to respond truthfully, he or she might say, "Listen, you ain't never gonna get anything, so you might as well just keep working. Paying slave reparations would probably lead to Native American reparations to reparations for the people bombed in Dresden, etc..., not to mention that no matter how large the sum set aside, if you were to calculate the number of descendants you'd probably only get fifty bucks. And don't you think fifty bucks for your ancestors' slavery is a bit insulting?" Of course, you'll never hear that because it would be politically incorrect.

To be fair, picture the soon to come Republican version. The questioner asks, "Are you in favor of murdering preborn babies?" The scary thing is that apparently as a society we consider these "good" questions, else why the approval. Woe is me.