Can We Imagine a Different Kind of Democratic Party Debate?

Images (1, 2) by DonkeyHotey and available under Creative Commons license.

Rapid-fire debates can only tell us so much. At some point, policy gives way to performance. Imagine a debate format that added something unique to the political conversation.

Why can’t basic Internet tech be used to make the presidential debates a series of conversations that happen over time?

What if the public was directly involved, instead of just using Internet tech to generate lots of public reactions and snark, as we do now via Twitter, Facebook, etc?

Some questions to consider:

• Do the candidates really have to be in the same room for a debate to happen?
• Do the candidates really have to be on stage at the same time for quality conversations to happen?
• Does a debate have to happen in just 120 minutes?
• Why can’t a debate happen over 30 days?
• Why can’t The People vote on questions?
• And vote on follow up questions?
• And vote on follow ups to those follow up questions?

Onstage rapid-fire debates tell us who some of the quick thinkers are. But the important details quickly get drowned out in soundbites and pre-planned attacks.

Imagine if we used our basic Internet tech to empower a different kind of public conversation.