Not many. But consider this: it might lead to a lot of academics and journalists doing analysis, which might lead to news stories that the general public would pay attention to.
My impression of US politics is that academics and journalists, like everyone else, either have their bottom line already written (i.e. they search for arguments to help their party) or the facts and science themselves become politicized (how do you win with facts if voters deliberately vote against facts?)
If two opposing beliefs are affiliated with the two parties, one of the beliefs being objectively true makes surprisingly little difference, because they are only being used as attire in the first place. At best you get one party labelled as more pro-sc...
See this Newsroom clip.
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?