Weisel: Why I won’t be watching the debate tonight

The past three debates in this election season have spawned endless discussion and reflection. Opinions blew up Facebook, Twitter and real-life living rooms.

But I didn’t watch them.

Partly because my cable box still isn’t hooked up, and I had just gotten home from work when they each started, but mostly because I didn’t want to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested in politics and follow what’s going on so that I can be an informed voter. But when it comes to getting information about the candidates, I think the debates are the worst place to turn.

I used to watch the debates with interest, attempting to analyze everything that each candidate said to decide who I wanted to support — even when I couldn’t vote. But after years of watching the debates, I’ve realized how pointless they really are.

For one thing, the debates are full of mere rhetoric. Questions are anticipated and answers are written weeks before the debates even begin. Even in the more loose town hall format, candidates can mentally plan their responses. And when they do go off script, they use their words to put whatever they’re saying in the best possible light.

As a viewer, you’re not necessarily getting the truth, but instead, a collection of buzzwords that turn into sound-bytes that will inevitably show up in campaign ads for or against the candidates. I want a candidate that can speak off-the-cuff and truthfully delineate his or her ideas for the presidency, not one who delivers rehearsed, tailor-made answers for the media.

The candidates also talk strictly about their “plans,” especially if they’re not incumbents — plans to do this, plans to do that. President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign was all about his plans to change our nation — four years later and even Obama supporters are complaining about the lack of change. In the debate, presidential nominee Mitt Romney was all about his plans to save our economy and create jobs and solve all of our problems.

Here’s the thing: Plans don’t work like that. Candidates can have great ideas, but they’re not going to actually know what is and isn’t possible until they enter the White House and realize how things really stand in our country. Plans are great, but they’re not everything, especially in a country where leadership is constantly changing hands.

There also isn’t any immediate accountability for the candidates as they’re debating. After the debates, there are innumerable articles detailing things the candidates said that are neither true nor possible. It’s great that the media holds the candidates accountable for the facts, but it doesn’t come until after the debate — Candy Crowley’s fact check last week notwithstanding.

When I’m actually watching the debate, how am I supposed to know what to believe? I know afterward I’m going to find out there are things they said that weren’t true, but if I don’t know until afterward, what’s the point of even watching at all?

Despite all of this, if you watch the debates, you are still likely going to filter information through your own bias. We are biased depending on our political affiliation, whether we know it or not, and those biases often cause us to see only the good in our candidate and the bad in the other.

Though the debates are a relatively useless part of the presidential campaign, there are plenty of other ways to learn and become an informed voter.

There is no way to find an unbiased source of information, but you can try to investigate both sides of each issue. That way you’ll receive information from both biases and can figure out where the crossover and the truth is.

You can also pay more attention to the other candidates in the election season — the senators and congressmen and mayors and your local politicians. The president is only one man in our government, and there are others who affect us more directly.

Most of the legislation and government actions that apply to us on a day-to-day basis happen on a local level, so those are the candidates we should be intently researching. The president does not control most of the property taxes where you live; your school board does. The president can’t push through an impacting bill by himself, but your State Representatives can help. These candidates serve essential functions in our government.

Lastly, I encourage you to decide what you believe before you do any research: Decide where you stand on issues based on your own morals and principles and adhere to those beliefs. Then it will be easier to find candidates that share those beliefs rather than trying to choose a side based purely on the political rhetoric surrounding the issue.

When you don’t have to engage in all the debate surrounding the debates, you can rest easy in your own decisions.

Email Elizabeth at eaweisel@gmail.com