• DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      10 months ago

      Kennedy famously trounced Nixon because he crushed him in the debate (mostly by looking better, but, also, he was Nixon and his ideas sucked)

      Lincoln straight up master debatered his way to the White House after the Lincoln-Douglas debates made him famous.

      The problem is not that America hasn’t had a debate tradition. The problem is that the last forty years it’s been neoliberals debating each other about how to suck less until now it’s neoliberals vs fascists and they’re, ya know, fascists.

      There isn’t a debate. They just lie and rage about their made up enemies.

      • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        No offense, but if you’ve got to go back to Lincoln/Douglas for your most convincing argument for how the United States has a tradition of debate, I think you’ve lost the argument before you’ve finished your point.

        Nixon/Kennedy, while often represented as a style vs substance debate (it wasn’t, Kennedy largely one on both based on broader polling than is generally trotted out, but his good looks to a televised audience certainly helps) is still more than two DECADES before the timetable you’re trying to lay out here.

      • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Canada is only ever a couple steps behind America. Our own right wing party took notes from 2016 US elections and are currently implementing them pretty successfully.

        Empty platform, just snarky mud slinging and vacuous pandering. And it’s working.

      • Fades@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Oh you mean the countries that can’t defend themselves? Woefully unprepared for large scale war?

        Also, you’re blind as fuck if you think Canada isn’t gong through it, same with Britain and others in the eu

        This isn’t localized just to the us

        • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The likes of Canada, Australia, and (to varying degrees) Europe are slowly trudging their way toward fascism, but the US is attempting a speedrun at the moment. That’s a far greater threat than large scale war.

          I don’t think it’s likely, but it’s a very real possibility that this will be the last meaningful election to be held in the US for the foreseeable future. The same can’t really be said for the others.