The Veep Debate: Civility Can Exist

Should the vice-presidential candidates be at the top of the ticket? How about creating the Common Sense Party?

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Whether you like or dislike JD Vance and/or Tim Walz, both offered an air of much-needed civility to American politics Tuesday night.

For the first time in a long time, you didn't feel like you were watching a gladiator match instead of a political debate.

In fact, watching Vance, 40, and Walz, 60, leaves a bit of hope that a bipartisanship discussion could exist in the world. The debate could have even made you think that the two people currently at the top of the ticket are the wrong two people.

Sure, both men disagree about policy and the direction of the country. That’s the nature of politics. A debate is a debate so the two threw some expected zingers at each other.

But overall, politeness existed, and that's something we desperately need in this country. Agree?

Walz of Minnesota and Vance of Ohio are both the kind of guys you could drink a beer with in a Midwestern bar even if you don't agree with their politics.

A bestselling author and U.S. senator, Vance, who also is an attorney, was a bit more polished for the national limelight than Walz, a former teacher turned Congressman and now current governor.

While Vance has been giving interviews lately, Walz has been locked away by the Harris campaign for some unknown reason. That's a mistake. Let him talk.

Walz did suffer a major gaffe when he said he had become friends with mass shooters during a discussion on gun control. He recovered though, and Vance chose not to go after him for that mistake.

When asked about his time in China during the 1980s, Walz said he was sometimes a “knucklehead” for essentially lying that he had been in China during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. No one, not even Vance, pressed him about an answer.

We have to remember these two men have to tow the line of the people who picked them. In this case, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris — two people a lot of Americans just don't like.

You hear frequently in South Arkansas: Is this the best America has to offer?

Trump, the city slicker businessman and former president from New York City, and Kamala Harris, the prosecuting attorney from San Francisco, former US Senator and current vice president, have very little in common with their Midwestern running mates.

Sure, they may agree on policy, but do they really identify with each other on a personal level? I just don't believe they do. Midwesterners are like Southerners. They get each other. A shared culture goes a long way.

I got the feeling Vance and Walz could identify with each other for that very reason.

Hell, the more I think about the future of politics, wouldn't it be great if the traditional Democratic and Republican parties just fell by the wayside and someone started the bipartisan Common Sense Party?

Maybe mainstream media wouldn't even moderate debates anymore for ratings and to generate contrived controversy. Maybe candidates could just chat with each other without media sticking their noses in it. A pipedream, I know.

Walz or Vance didn't fall far into the moderators’ traps — if there were any traps at all. The moderators seemed almost invisible except for one fact checking moment about a Vance statement. The moderators were not supposed to fact check anything per debate rules. Still, a biased knock-down drag out didn't occur.

Who won the debate? Vance. IMHO.

Vance's political star will only shine brighter and that sets him up for a presidential run in 2028 if Trump loses. Vance is a conservative force for anyone eyeing a presidential run in the future like, say, Sarah Sanders or Tom Cotton.

If Harris loses, Walz will carry on just fine as Minnesota's governor. He's coasting to retirement.

For all the hype leading into the veep debate, Americans definitely received a gift of decency from both men. Even if the debate heated up over Jan. 6, the tone never rose to the level of “these two people are absolutely crazy.”

The main takeaway? A pleasant decorum can exist in politics. We saw that last night. Even if both candidates were “gaslighting” or “playing politics” as some people are saying this morning, Americans got a nice break from Crazyville and inflammatory rhetoric.

Aside from political stances or differences on social issues, Vance or Walz would be a breath of fresh air when addressing the nation in a time of crisis.