The evolution of debates
After watching George Bush and John Kerry debate, I can’t help but wonder, what would Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas think? Their debates, the most famous debates in American political history, weren’t for the presidency but for the position of Illinois senator. Modern presidential debates have existed for only the past half-century, but have gained so much influence that they could affect the outcome of the Nov. 2 election.
George Washington never participated in a presidential debate. He ran unopposed.
Traditionally, presidential candidates were expected to abstain from campaigning. Thus, even as the two-party system emerged and political contests became more heated, debates were discouraged. Instead, electioneering was done by partisan newspapers, which actively and openly promoted favored candidates.
The first political debates were not presidential, but senatorial campaign. In 1858, Illinois Sen. Douglas was up for re-election, and the Republican Party chose Lincoln as his opponent.
Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven three-hour debates, the focus of which would be slavery. Douglas accepted.
Douglas supported the doctrine of popular sovereignty, the idea that inhabitants of a state or territory should be allowed to decide if slavery was acceptable. Lincoln called for national unity through opposition to slavery. Douglas’s beliefs were sufficient for the people of Illinois, and he beat Lincoln.
When Douglas and Lincoln ran opposite each other for the presidency in 1860, the candidates maintained tradition and abstained from campaigning. However, Douglas’s seemingly neutral stance on slavery during the debates for the Senate seat had divided the Democratic Party, costing him a large part of the Southern vote and paving the way for Lincoln, backed by Northern Republicans, to take the presidency.
In 1960, Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon both saw televised debates as advantageous, and television networks were eager to prove their commitment to civic duty. Furthermore, Congress suspended the Communications Act of 1934, which mandated equal time for all candidates, to allow a two-man debate.
This marked the first formal debate between two presidential candidates.
Presidential debates have come a long way since then. Modern debates, including those between Kerry and Bush, have benefited from earlier political contests. Today’s debates are generally focused on narrow topics like homeland security or domestic policy, borrowing from the specific focus of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Furthermore, presidential candidates such as Kerry and Bush recognize, as did Nixon and Kennedy, that the televised debates are a fantastic opportunity to sway voter opinion.