Hosting a debate is a way to help everyday folks get an idea of what each candidate has to offer them. In a debate, two people will answer questions in order for American voters to make an informed choice about which of them will earn their vote.
There are many variables for a debate host to account for. How much time should you give to each person? How do you handle someone talking out of turn? How do you handle someone going over time?
How do you handle someone not telling the truth?
We'll explore all of these and build a solid understanding of how to host a debate that ensures the American people get accurate and reliable information with which to make an informed choice.
Let's start off by fully understanding what our goal for the debate is.
For example, if our goal is to make a bowl of cereal, our end-state is to have a bowl full of both cereal and milk.
Goals have two components: setting the goal, and achieving the goal.
- In setting the goal, we state our intended outcome (i.e., the end-state toward which our efforts are directed).
- In achieving the goal, we make choices that help us make that end-state a reality (i.e., we do things that help us achieve our intended outcome).
What is the goal of a debate?
To set the goal of a debate, we need to know what our intended outcome is. To know that, we think about what we do know, and see if that can inform what our intended outcome might be.
How do we do that? We just start asking questions:
What is a debate? In a political debate, two people running for the same office argue their positions based on facts and evidence.
Why have a debate? When two people are running for the same office, a live debate that American voters can watch empowers those voters with information about each candidate's behavior and how they think so that they can make an informed choice when voting.
What is the context of a debate? The context in which a political debate takes place is in the period of time before an election, when voters are gathering facts about each candidate's behaviors and ideas so that they can make an informed choice when they go to vote.
Why does context matter in a debate?
Context here refers to the circumstances that frame how we approach a situation. Understanding how context affects the goals we set helps ensure that our actions truly support the outcomes we intend.
In the context of an election, American voters want to feel informed when they cast their ballots. They also want their neighbors to make informed choices, understanding that a thoughtful and collective decision will shape the result.
Understanding the role of context in setting goals isn't limited to political debates. It's something we apply in everyday situations, too. For example, if our goal is to make a bowl of cereal, would the choice to walk outside help us achieve that goal?
To answer this question, we need to know the context in which the choice to walk outside is being made. Context helps us know why the choice was made, which allows us to determine whether the choice will help us achieve our goal.
If the reason we walked outside is to dig a hole, does the choice to walk outside help us achieve our goal of making a bowl of cereal?
No, it does not.
- Why not? In this case, the context for the choice of going outside is that we are going to dig a hole—and digging a hole does not help us achieve our intended outcome of making a bowl of cereal.
On the other hand, if the reason we walk outside is to go to the store to buy some milk because we are out of milk, does the choice to walk outside help us achieve our goal of making a bowl of cereal?
Yes, it does!
- Why? In this case, the context for the choice of going outside is that we are going to get some milk from the store—and since we need milk to make a bowl of cereal, walking outside in this context does help us achieve our intended outcome of making a bowl of cereal.
Just like how walking outside to buy milk serves serve the goal of making a bowl of cereal, the choices we make in shaping a political debate should serve the goal of providing voters with the information they need to make an informed decision.
Shaping the Goal of a Debate
Given the context of an election, our goal should align with helping voters gather the facts they need to make an informed decision.
👍 If the debate focuses on the candidates' positions and provides clear facts:
- the American voters watching the debate can make a decision that reflects their informed understanding of each candidate’s stance.
👎 If the debate focuses on the candidates' positions and does not provide clear facts:
- the American voters watching the debates can not make a decision that reflects their informed understanding of each candidate's stance because we did not provide clear facts.
Therefore, a debate serves its purpose within the context of an election by contributing to a more informed electorate.
Putting this all together, we can confidently state the following:
Our goal for the debate is for the American people to make an informed choice when they vote.
With our goal set, we can now talk about how we will achieve it.
What is our objective?
How do we achieve our goal of the American people making an informed choice when they vote?
To answer this, we need to come up with an objective.
If our goal is to make a bowl of cereal, one objective will be to ensure we have enough milk—which includes going to the store if we are out of milk.
To determine what our objective should be for our debate, let's look again at the principal part of our goal, highlighted below in bold, which happens to include the context in which the debate is taking place:
- Our goal for the debate is for the American people to make an informed choice when they vote.
The context of this debate is an election; that's why our goal is to help people make an informed choice about voting.
To figure out how we can facilitate the process of Americans making informed choices, let's start by defining what an informed choice is, and then ask ourselves how anyone makes an informed choice:
- An informed choice is one that is based on accurate and reliable information.
So, people make informed choices when they make choices based on accurate, reliable information.
Therefore, to help the American people make an informed choice about who to vote for, we must ensure they are receiving accurate and reliable information.
This means that our objective—the thing we will do in order to achieve our goal—can now be stated as follows:
Our objective for the debate is to provide the American people accurate and reliable information to help them make an informed choice when they vote.
How do we provide the American people accurate and reliable information?
For starters, we can expect anyone participating in a debate to behave in good faith.
When someone participates in good faith, they have the sincere intention to be honest.
American voters ought to expect a debate to contain facts, but as we have seen in the past, if you are hosting a debate and the stakes are high, a candidate may say something that is not true.
When a candidate says something that is not true, they have behaved in bad faith. This negatively affects the debate by forcing the other candidate to choose between making policy statements and addressing the lie.
If your goal is truth, an objectively false statement must be met with swift moderation. The moderator MUST:
- Pause the debate.
- Correct the lie with the truth.
- Call out the candidate for having lied. "You just made a statement that is not true according to multiple credible sources" is a factual, normal statement to make when someone is not telling the truth.
Any other behavior that does not involve correcting the lie and calling out the liar can ONLY be construed as prioritizing entertainment over truth.
Putting it All Together
We've deconstructed the concept of goals and objectives, and applied what we've discovered to the concept of a debate in the context of an election.
Having done this, we're ready to put everything together for you to bring up at your next editorial meeting as you make preparations to host a debate for American voters. A good tool to frame goals and objectives is the WWSWW framework (We Want, So We Will):
WE WANT
the American people
to make an informed choice
when they vote,
SO WE WILL
provide the American people
accurate and reliable information.
Congratulations! You're ready to embark on the privilege of hosting a debate for American voters.