How big of an impact would cleaner political debates have on society?

Biff Wiff

Basically, their news network is trying to change the way political debates work by having the moderator force the candidates to answer the questions that are asked of them, not interrupt each other, justify arguments that are based on obvious falsehoods etc.

How big of a positive impact do you guys think that this would have on society?

My initial thoughts are that it would be huge. It would lead to better politicians, which would be a high level of action. The positive effects would trickle down into many aspects of our society.

The question then becomes, "can we make this happen?". I don't see a way right now, but the idea has enough upside to me that I keep it in the back of my mind in case I come up with a plausible way of implementing the change.

Thoughts?

See this Newsroom clip.

How big of a positive impact do you guys think that this would have on society?

My initial thoughts are that it would be huge. It would lead to better politicians, which would be a high level of action. The positive effects would trickle down into many aspects of our society.

Thoughts?

We would need better informed and more intelligent voters for this to have much of an impact, and even then I doubt it would matter because high IQ, well informed voters already have a very good idea of what candidates will do when elected.

I would much rather have candidates take IQ and general knowledge tests than participate in honest debates. And in the near future what I would like to see is a DNA analysis of Presidential candidates to identify those with genes predisposing them to being sociopaths.

I would much rather have candidates take IQ and general knowledge tests than participate in honest debates

Sure you would. And if even a significant minority of the electorate agreed with you, you might see something like that happen.

what I would like to see is a DNA analysis of Presidential candidates to identify those with genes predisposing them to being sociopaths.

Would you vote for the more sociopathic or the less? I'm pretty sure in a competition between societies the last thing you want in a leader is someone who constrains how your team c... (read more)

0Josh You12y

I doubt an IQ test would be useful at all. One has to be quite intelligent to be a real candidate for presidency.

4ChristianKl12y

I think you focus to much on the individual candidate themselves. When trying to understand what a president will do after an election, look at the kind of people who he picks as his advisers. If president takes mainstream economists as his economy advisers instead of a bunch of bankers, that says something that might be more important than a quiz on economic knowledge. A president isn't going to write his own economic policy anyway. It's the job of the president to pick the right expert to write the economic policy.