It’s worth reflecting on this irony that emerged from the Republican National Committee’s meeting this month: At the same time the GOP absurdly deemed the Jan. 6 insurrectionists “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse,” it took a step toward shutting down actual legitimate political discourse by advancing a rule that could lead to the end of presidential debates.
The party claims it wants its candidates to continue participating in general election debates — just not those organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has sponsored this political tradition since 1988. It’s possible some new arrangement will be reached and debates will continue.
But based what happened in 2020 — when then-President Trump repeatedly trashed the legitimacy of the debate organization and eventually pulled out of one debate in favor of holding his own town hall at the same time as Joe Biden’s — it seems that the era of the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees sharing a debate stage may be coming to an end.
