Junior High Kids Put National Debates to Shame – WP Original

By: Mark Glennon*

Seventh and eighth graders chose the questions for their two candidates for the U.S. Congress in a forum Tuesday evening. Check out how issue-focused, straightforward and productive their questions were, as well as the coverage of it, in the Chicago Tribune article linked here. “Policies, not personalities, mark WJHS students’ questions to Schakowsky, Lasonde” — that was the Tribune’s appropriate headline.

What a contrast to the national debates and so much of the media’s coverage. Nothing about Miss Universe, Birthirism, Tweets, who-called-whom-what and all the other tabloid, time-wasting nonsense that has consumed the national stage. In the two minutes it takes to read that Tribune article, you can genuinely learn more about the he philosophy of the candidates than you could listening for two hours to the last presidential debate. Policies, not personalities.

Among those differences:

• Were the candidates in favor of bringing more Syrian refugees to the U.S.? (Schakowsky said yes, Lasonde, saying “charity begins at home,” said no.)

• How would candidates balance the needs expressed by the Black Lives Matter movement with respecting police? (Shakowsky said making community police forces look more like their communities could foster mutual respect; Lasonde, saying all lives mattered, pleaded for a divided country to come together, and for Congress to lead by example.)

• What were the candidates’ views on jobs? (Lasonde decried what she said was an 8.7 percent unemployment rate in the 9th District, and said the private sector creates jobs, not the government. Schakowsky disagreed, saying the government can help create jobs by programs such as road and bridge building.)

Great work, kids!