Debates and the standardized test.
On and on ad nauseam candidates are spewing out their one liners trying to get the most points on the debates. Like standardized tests, they are a national disgrace. They depend on simple answers to complex questions forcing the simple minded in the viewing audience to cheer or boo over utter nonsense.
Why is this the case? Allow me to quote George Carlin: " They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. That's against their interest. They want obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept it." They want the Stepford families that believe that complex problems are simple if only they are elected.
However, I don't put the whole blame on the politicians. They present what we the people and the tabloid media expect of them. I do not agree, as was stated in the last GOP debate, that the liberal press is biased. Judging by how they bashed Secretary Clinton and President Obama, they are equal opportunity bashers. The media is owned by corporations that must have advertisers paying them big money or they fail. In order to get sufficient ads, they must have viewers. In order to get viewers they depend on simplistic gotcha news. And it works.
Look at Fox "news". They aren't even tabloid, they are straight out Russian style propaganda. Remember the Ukraine situation where Russians said Ukraine supporters were aiming at Putin's plane and hit the passenger jet that was brought down killing many? Conspiracy theories are Saving Students From A Shattered System: Debates and the standardized test.: