The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
During an interview with Howard Stern on April 26, President Joe Biden said he would be “happy” to debate Donald Trump. Biden and his campaign should rethink and rescind this offer, or else they should attach a nonnegotiable condition on their participation in any debate with Trump.
Hold that thought. First, let’s acknowledge that Biden would be at a significant disadvantage in a debate with Trump. Modern political debates are about performance, not issues. No one wins a debate by articulating an organized, carefully conceived position, something nearly impossible to do during the two-minute segments and the 30-second rebuttals of the modern format.
In fact, the actual content of the candidates’ discourse hardly matters. The goals are the perfect sound bite, the stinging zinger and a gaffe-free performance. The worst shortcoming is to fail to get a word in edgewise. Candidates interrupt, talk over each other and refuse to yield the floor.
In a modern debate, Trump will always have the advantage; the ground rules suit him. Interrupting comes naturally to him. He blusters and struts. He’s a rhetorical bully; his discourse relies on bombastic assertion, generally unencumbered by facts, logic or deliberation.
We have to be honest about Biden, as well. Eloquence has never been his strong suit, and he’s always been prone to gaffes, misstatements and exaggerations. These oratorical faults do not diminish with age.
Even issues that are good for Biden — such as abortion — won’t help him in a debate:
Biden is part of a significant majority of Americans who support women’s right to reproductive freedom. It should be a winning issue for Democrats. But it’s complicated. Some Americans want to prohibit abortion entirely. Others support women’s right to choose, but favor restraints. Fifteen weeks? Viability? Life of the mother? What about rape and incest? Should women who receive abortions or doctors who perform them be punished? What about women who cross state lines to have an abortion?
The abortion-rights position that most Americans favor is a lot to explain and defend in two minutes, especially if you’re being interrupted.
Trump, on the other hand, need only assert that Democrats want to allow unhindered abortion up to the moment of birth and even beyond. This isn’t true, of course, but real-time fact-checking cannot keep up with the pace of modern debates. Zinger.
In short, a debate is a losing proposition for Biden. He has nothing to gain. But refusing to debate is also a loser.
Still, one wonders why Biden should feel obligated to debate a man who does not show enough respect for him or for our republic to acknowledge that Biden actually won the presidency in 2020.
Biden should agree to debate Trump under one condition with two parts: that Trump concede the 2020 election and agree, without equivocation, to accept the results of the 2024 election.
Trump wouldn’t have to admit that he embraced election denialism against the counsel of lawyers who knew better; or admit that he orchestrated a false electors scheme to subvert certification; or that he threatened officials to “find” votes for him; or that he encouraged a mob to march on the Capitol to stop the certification.
No, all he has to do is admit that Biden won the 2020 election and agree to abide by the results in November.
This should be the price of admission into participation in our republic, the minimum ante required of every player to get into the game. Anyone is free to run for president, but why should a candidate who refuses to commit to this essential democratic baseline be afforded the platform that a presidential debate provides?
In short: No commitment to democracy, no debate. Of course, Trump is unlikely to make this commitment. It’s a question of credibility. But that’s his problem.
Biden should demand this commitment; so should every American. If Trump refuses, Biden has no obligation to debate him.
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