My sister mentioned to me that soon the debates for all the Republicans running for president will begin. I asked when the debates for the Democrats would take place. Apparently, there won't be any because - according to her - no one wants to make Biden look bad. Apparently, that is also the reason why only two people are running against him because to do so would be a damaging political move on account of running against someone requiring you to point out their weaknesses as a leader. 

But... should we not be pointing out the weaknesses of our leaders? Wouldn't doing so motivate any given leader to do better? It seems counterintuitive to me that showing the holes in someone's plan in an honest to goodness debate is the whole purpose of having a debate to begin with. And is dissent not part of the whole purpose of checks and balances? 

Then my sister goes on further to explain that because of that whole dynamic, none of the Democrats running against Biden have any real shot at getting a nomination. She pointed to that Kennedy guy that I see people latching onto explaining he was a crazy conspiracy theorist so even bringing him on TV is unthinkable because "it's bad to platform bad ideas."

And that seems to be straight out of the TRA handbook. There can be no debate because a debate means giving people who don't agree with us a platform. However if what they're saying is so unreasonable, shouldn't getting the upper hand in a debate be easy? If an idea is so terrible, will your mind really be corrupted by listening to that speech, reading that book, or watching that interview? 

My sister thinks... yes, you would be corrupted. She says the average person is not smart enough to have adequate political opinions... which is basically the whole reason the electoral college exists... an aspect of our elections that has caused an earthquake more than once. 

Idk. I might not know much about political strategy, but my sister is very keyed into things on the political left and the way she talks about it doesn't make the unspoken rules career politicians seem like a good temperature check of a legitimate government.