Mark Small

College debate was a blast. DePauw’s coach, Dr Weiss, was a great person and a mentor. He stressed values, but did not protest the trophies that fill shelves or plaques that hang on the walls of the trophy room in Greencastle. 2/10

I even coached, for several years after law school, at I.U.P.U.I. No matter the type of debate - NDT, CEDA, NEDA - or the topic, there were two rules no one could violate. Because trump violates these basic rules, he cannot debate. The rules? 3/10

Rule #1: Do not speak “over” - in two ways. First, you could not “run over” your time. When the “stop” card came up, you were to shut up. After that a debater’s comments are ignored. If the violations were continuous, a judge could give a loss. 4/10

Judges - usually coaches from other schools - were not shy about enforcement. trump - and in the VP debate this past week, pence - showed total disregard for this basic rule. Another aspect was - no one could speak “over” the other team. 5/10

Think of basketball. No one would say one team gets the ball the entire game. In debate, words are the heart of the medium. In all the years I competed and coached in debate, I never saw one team’s members talk to drown out the opponent. 6/10

Rule #2: Do not falsify. If a “death penalty” existed - in high school or college - in debate, it would have been meted out for falsifying evidence. We had quotes on 4" x 6" cards to argue the points in rounds. 7/10

Sources for those quotes could be arcane or nutty, but to lie meant loss of a round or possible suspension of a team from a tournament. trump can’t talk without lying. He’s an idiot who - according to his sister - hired somebody to take the SAT for him to get into Fordham. 8/10

trump only can “win” an argument by screaming his lies and interrupting his opponent. That is not debating. 9/10