Opinion: Why no one should debate Trump or RFK Jr. - Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-07-19/donald-trump-robert-kennedy-jr-debate-gish-gallop #uspolitics #GishGallop
I think this article gets it wrong for a couple of reasons.
For one, it is possible to set up debates that actually force participants to debate. In fact, it's not even hard to set such rules. It is hard to get candidates to show up to a debate with good rules, but that's a different issue.
For another, sure LET Trump engage in the gish gallop to demonstrate to the country that he hasn't reformed, hasn't gotten better, to dispel the notion that he's now more acceptable because he's changed over the years.
Sounds like the author is mainly worried about protecting voters from their own reactions. I say let them have the information, and let the democratic process rip.
I don't think it's about intelligence, though. An awful lot of people will be so viscerally disgusted by Trump that they will refuse to vote for him, regardless of.... well, are we going to even assume he'd be saying something that lands on the spectrum of intelligence these days? :)
I have heard mainstream/centrist/moderate folks talk about how he's changed, how he has better people around him now, and how he's learned in the years since his loss.
I think the CNN town hall demonstrated to a smallish audience that he hasn't changed, he's still repulsive, and I look to a debate to really drill that home to a larger audience.
