The 2020 Democratic pre-primary debates are about to begin, and I think they are a terrible idea. Democrats have an amazing, deep bench of highly qualified, intelligent candidates for President. We should celebrate them\u2014all of them, and their ideas\u2014not turn them against one another in a prime-time circular firing squad.<\/p>\n

Debates are designed to be confrontational. There\u2019s score keeping. There\u2019s grandstanding. There are winners and losers. With a field this qualified\u2014this early in the game\u2014that\u2019s not a smart approach. Rather than rushing to winnow down the crowd, the Democratic party should be showcasing the range of smart, progressive, practical, and beneficial policies and programs that these candidates stand behind.<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s an idea. Instead of a dozen or more candidates standing stiffly behind podiums, trying to think up snappy comebacks or memorable bumper-sticker lines in the 30-seconds they have to speak, let\u2019s do something completely different. Let\u2019s ditch the network correspondents and their gotcha questions, the timers, the flashing lights, the podiums, the audience woo-woo, and the win\/lose format. Instead, sit them down at a roundtable and let them brainstorm\u2014collaboratively\u2014the big issues facing this country. Give everyone at the table a chance to offer constructive input. Show the country that discussion\u2014rather than debate\u2014and mutual respect\u2014rather than competition\u2014can create the solutions that we desperately need. Maybe offer a series of these roundtable brainstorming sessions, each focused on one or two issues. I\u2019d like to hear what each of these candidates would say, especially if the idea is to be collaborative, not self-promoting.\u00a0 What a way to underscore the differences between the Republican Party’s obstructive, confrontational and downright nasty way of “governing,” and a Democratic [capital and small d], cooperative, good-of-the-country attitude. Publicly brainstorming the big issues could show the country–dare I say inspire us?–to see what could be done when people think big, think smart and think together.<\/p>\n

We are at a dangerous moment in the run-up to the 2020 Presidential election. We\u2019ve hardly even met some of the Democratic contenders, and the party “leadership” is already trying to narrow the field to a few favorites. Sure, culling the field could focus the almighty fundraising efforts and possibly create the non-diluted groundswell for a single candidate that would make things go more smoothly for the Democratic party apparatus. But in my opinion, that’s a mistake.<\/p>\n

We know who the conventional \u201cfront runners\u201d are (based on the destructive fundraising race and on far-too-early-to-be-credible polling). But things can change, and the lesser-known candidates have barely had a chance to introduce themselves. Let\u2019s slow this thing down, and think beyond the way it\u2019s always been done. The person currently occupying the White House has built his presidency on breaking all the rules. Maybe the Democrats could think about shaking things up a bit, too. But in a good way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2020 Democratic pre-primary debates are about to begin, and I think they are a terrible idea. Democrats have an amazing, deep bench of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3027,162,3244,715],"tags":[3028,2038,603,3431],"yoast_head":"\n