The Republican presidential debates seem to be occurring as regularly as episodes of reality TV--and in truth, the difference between the two appears to be shrinking. People watch each debate to see who's going to screw up and how. After each debate, viewers are left with incredulous gossip about the blunders and the wry jabs the candidates make. It's less about airing out opinions and engaging in true political dialectic and more about establishing personality and providing entertainment. It may be fun, but it's probably not productive. And Ron Paul's campaign committee has started to call out the facade for what it is.

 

Jesse Benton, Paul's campaign chairman, has bluntly stated that the libertarian champion will not be participating in the next presidential debate--because it will be hosted by Donald Trump. It really does seem as though NewsMax doesn't care about preserving the line between politics and entertainment. Putting the Apprentice star at the forefront of a debate that's supposed to help voters select their next potential president really seems like a ploy for ratings at the expense of political integrity. Just because Trump made a brief, histrionic pull for the presidential nomination doesn't mean that he's qualified to discuss political matters with Republican candidates. It's a silly, anti-intellectual move that Paul wants no part of.

 

As the media becomes more and more hysterical in its grabs for attention and (ultimately) advertising dollars, the public seems to become more and more confused as to whether they want a president or a celebrity in the oval office. Ron Paul may be a lot of things (not all of them President material), but at least he's principled enough to stay away from the most transparent hijacking of politics by mainstream media we've seen in a while. 

 

Trump is no politician. He's a businessman first and a celebrity second. He'll probably get plenty of viewers to tune in just for the sake of seeing him parade around with the GOP lineup, but he's not going to get at any kind of deeper issues that might help voters make up their minds about the presidential nominee. So long as we have debates moderated by reality television stars, we're not going to escape this culture of hyper-dramatics and easy emotional manipulation. We're going to keep watching political events on TV in hopes of catching mistakes, not hearing answers. And that doesn't speak well toward maintaining a well-informed public capable of making good decisions about their own leaders.