Republicans want to scrap presidential debates? Good.

A debate stage.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

Republicans are ready to do away with the current system of presidential debates. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Thursday notified the Commission on Presidential Debates that the party intends to prohibit its candidate from participating in 2024 debates against the Democratic nominee, citing the format's "bias against Republicans."

You know what? That sounds fine.

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Does anybody think that democracy was well-served by that "debate?"

The criticisms of the presidential debate format are well-known by now — they put an emphasis on stagecraft over substance, on posturing and soundbites and a lot of other skills that are great for TV but don't have much to do with the actual work of presidenting. Significantly, debates appear to have little effect on election outcomes. The upside is that they grab a lot of attention from voters who've had other things to do besides follow politics on Twitter all day: Some 63 million people watched the final debate of the campaign in October 2020.

Those voters do deserve a chance to hear in-depth from presidential candidates. Luckily — and inadvertently — the 2020 cycle offered a substantive alternative to debates: dueling town halls. Because of Trump's COVID infection, the second debate that year was canceled. Trump instead met voters with NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie, while Biden took voter questions with ABC's George Stephanopoulos. The format allowed viewers more of a chance to judge each candidate on their own merits, and for the candidates to respond to the concerns of actual voters instead of savvy journalists putting a notch on their career-achievements belt.

So let's do that again in 2024 — but on purpose this time. Scrap the debates and give each candidate 90 minutes of airtime with voters on back-to-back nights right before Americans start casting ballots. After 2020, it's clearly time to try something different.

Joel Mathis, The Week US

Joel Mathis is a writer with 30 years of newspaper and online journalism experience. His work also regularly appears in National Geographic and The Kansas City Star. His awards include best online commentary at the Online News Association and (twice) at the City and Regional Magazine Association.