DECENCY, DECORUM, AND DEBATES

[Author’s Note: I wrote this piece two or three days ago. Nothing that happened in last night’s presidential debate changes my thesis. The New York businessman now residing at the White House is indecent in every way, and he, more than anyone, has dragged our political discourse into the gutter. One evening, orchestrating a sanitized, toned down game plan clearly concocted and forced on him by his increasingly desperate handlers, does not make a decent human being; does not cleanse the bile of his daily invectives against those he demonizes and dehumanizes – most heinously and unthinkably, even members of the military killed in the line of duty.]

Recently, the upcoming election had me thinking about decency, decorum, and debates, and I decided to do a little research. I wanted to learn more about the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, along with Kennedy-Nixon in 1960, possibly the most famous and impactful debates in our political history.

Abraham Lincoln debated incumbent Stephen Douglas a total of seven times during the 1858 campaign for the Illinois US Senate seat. Douglas won the election only because his party controlled the Illinois state house (which had the power to choose the state’s US Senator). However, Lincoln’s stellar debate performances are often credited for his nomination and eventual election as US President two years later in 1860.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates were raucous and so heated as to have “set the prairies on fire.” There certainly was no love lost between the two long-time political rivals. However, the most interesting thing to me was that Lincoln, who stood a full foot taller than Douglas (6’4” vs. 5’4”), never once ridiculed his opponent’s height disability, cast aspersions on the incumbent’s manliness, or made even thinly veiled allusions to his own prowess in the boudoir. Amazing. Not once. Imagine that!

And then I remembered the Republican presidential primary debates of 2016, where a New York businessman taunted an incumbent US Senator from Florida with references to his Lilliputian stature, mocking him by appending the word “Little” before pronouncing the senator’s first name. And finally, to ensure the nation could never mistake how he felt about himself, the New York businessman offered his hand size as a demonstration of his physical gifts and presumed virility.

To most students of American democracy, it was simply unbelievable that our political discourse had  descended so thoroughly to the genre of reality television. Then again, you know what they say: once a reality tv con artist, always a reality tv con artist. Or something like that. To the consternation of so many of us, this sort of undisguised and unrepentant ribald discourse, pioneered by the likes of Jerry Springer and Richard Bey, has now become de rigueur in our political and public lives. The New Normal, as it were.

Net, net, net – Lincoln was twice elected president (1860 and 1864), and he is commonly judged by eminent political historians as one of the three greatest US Presidents (along with Washington and FDR). Despite losing the popular vote by 2.8 million votes, the New York businessman won the 2016 election via the Electoral College (only the 5th time in US history), and he is now uniformly judged by eminent political historians as the worst US President.

Moral of the story: Size does not matter. Decency does. Decorum does.

As do Humanity, Compassion, Empathy, Humility, Respect, Justice, and Equality.

The American people are about to prove the enduring truth of this in less than two weeks from now.

Bobby Frank

IG: @bfrank.with.me

#SizeDoesNotMatter

#DecencyMatters

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#HumanityMatters

#CompassionMatters

#EmpathyMatters

#HumilityMatters

#RespectMatters

#JusticeMatters

#EqualityMatters