Laguna Beach City Council Race 2012: Why No Debate?

There’s really nothing to argue about when it comes to our local elections and their outcome: That’s because there are literally no debates.

If the 2012 election in Laguna Beach is the “same old, same old”—that is, a boring repetition of those which have occurred in the past—voters will once again be choosing their new overlords in a vacuum of information.

As the past templates are repeated, none of the usual suspects, the civic groups that perennially host venues attended by all of the candidates, will hold true debates. No, they will hold “forums,” where they (the hosting party) will control the format in a dictatorial, self-serving way.

These groups usually decide which questions get asked and/or who gets to ask them, plus in what manner they’re answered. They’ll “t-ball” pre-determined generic inquiries slanted towards their favorite candidates with the appropriate, pre-determined answers dressed up as incisive thoughts.

In short, they hold meetings that are basically packed with their brood, just glorified mixers for their chosen ones, and the hosts can pre-screen and skew the results via intrigue and manipulation by the moderation dynamics.

They mask planted shills for their pet candidates as insightful inquisitors. The reality is that such requests for information via hard-line questioning is a joke, when in fact the candidates are simply reading ad and marketing copy. Oh, and of course telling the supplicant facet of their audience what they want to hear. 

These forums ignore several aspects of the process and job description, especially the deliberative demands, the types of judgmental stresses that often happen in governance. You know, the hard decisions, the tough ones like NOT what’s best for the candidate’s constituency (supporters), but what’s the higher, better road for the entire city populace.

Heaven forbid a candidate who proposes something innovative. Let alone that proverbial “out-of-the-box” futuristic or visionary planning. Watching these forums is akin to those bobblehead dolls in the rear windows of cars. Busy bodies, very busy, going nowhere.

That “provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare” logic doesn’t always become reality in local, riotously alleged “non-partisan” races. C’mon, we KNOW these people’s party of choice or affiliation ... we can look it up, why pretend that it’s not critical?

Debates mandate immediate interactive argumentation and logical consistency, helping the electorate determine eligibility spontaneously, and maybe more importantly, if these people are independent thinkers made from the right stuff. The people are NOT served well when sockpuppets rule the tragic kingdom.

What we get every two years is the same emotional appeal blather, a veritable slathering, gushy and slobbering “Love-In.” The candidates all seem driven to exclaim two major themes of the election cycle festival: (A) They love Laguna and (B) They would love to serve Laguna. They persuade us by repeating variations of these two elements ad nauseum.

C’mon, everybody loves Laguna or they wouldn’t be living here. Being here isn’t karmic punishment, this is nirvana compared to most places. So (A) is a “gimme,” a foregone conclusion, a given.

As for (B), muttering that they want to serve you ... well, if you believe that being indisputably in charge of your city, sitting up there on the dais like authoritative feudal dukes and duchesses, is submissive, then every two years you probably buy that whimsical and shallow item from their shopping cart.

No offense to the recently departed Whitney Houston or the writer of that song “I Will Always Love You,” (Dolly Parton) but I was sick of hearing the tune after it was literally played to death back in 1992. Regardless, Laguna council candidates will run a close second in the scramble to out-love the others.

Houston’s recent demise only gave me (as Yogi Berra said) déjà vu all over again, as anyone with their TV on had to go through that brand of Chinese water torture relentlessly for days on end—which I guess is proof that cruel and unusual punishment is alive and well in America, both on the airwaves and now, unfortunately, I expect in our upcoming City Council race. And the next one. And the one after that.

First off, most of our candidates will reveal little if any degree of separation, their differences buried by the forum format. Might as well have robots up there, nothing dramatic is really going to happen, the forums are about as exciting as watching paint dry—or another one of the interminable Council meetings we observe being broadcast on COX, if we’re insomniacs seeking a snooze.

Hey, come to think of it, maybe THAT’S where they learned to be so beige, so Pablum® bland, where they were indoctrinated into the “go along to get along” cloned homogeneity that they then take into Chambers if seated ...

A debate, on the other hand, with its tooth, fang and claw potential, its openness to actual live interactive discussion of issues, is priceless. With a fact-checking, truthiness/oversight ombudsman ready at hand during the discourse, we could see up close and immediately if these people have a clue. Instead, everything they say will go unchallenged.

We’d learn something, anything other than mindless, endless mouthing reflecting the mantras of (A) and (B) above. Or reading them redundantly as regurgitated by what hysterically passes for local media scrutiny.

I haven’t seen too much of what we were taught back in philosophy classes as “superior context” or “framing of issues” that debates require. No, mostly it’s just posturing, no intelligent persuading because the forum hosts and moderators don’t demand even a modicum of contestation. And the “house” is usually packed with shills and sycophants. If anything, confrontation is frowned upon.

Like a gang of Newt Gingrich progeny, usually there’s an agreement to avoid personal clashes—shame, shame on them if they stoop, dirty politics is derisively frowned upon. But isn’t that what politics is, bare-knuckle fighting, no-holds-barred, and in the heat of exposure and pressure things emerge that wouldn’t otherwise? How in the hell can you tell them apart without a scorecard?