This election season has been just shy of one big joke.  There have been a wide range of absurd and unprofessional occurrences during this season from blatant xenophobia, to the unprofessional use of personal email to conduct classified government communication, to penis size becoming a debate issue.  The list of absurdities goes on ad nauseam and shows no sign of slowing down from the breakneck pace at which it is growing.  This has caused a majority of the public to ignore some very large issues like a thinly veiled wealth-based oligarchy in the executive branch of the US Government, the effects of a potential Bush or Clinton dynasty due to brand recognition instead of firm political ideals, or the fact that the American people as a whole are taking a reality television star seriously as a presidential hopeful.

All I can say is, "America, you have truly run amok."

Fortunately, Ken Herman has much more to say than I, and in a salty written voice reminiscent of someone on an evolutionary course to becoming Jim Hightower.  In this editorial Herman addresses a number of issues with our current entertainment-centered presidential primary.  Herman suggests that the first step to begin a path towards politics being part of candidacy debates would be the removal of the audience.  Herman describes parts of the most recent Republican debate in Detroit as a "middle-school melee" fueled in part by "audience infused energy".

In reference to one spat between Cruz and Trump, Herman writes:
"I think they would [do better] if we didn’t have debates produced at times to lean more toward verbal gladiator combat than measured discussion of the perilous issues we confront. Without a live, over-involved audience, perhaps we wouldn’t have had interplay such as this between Trump and Ted Cruz in Detroit."

Throughout the article Herman backs up his idea that a removal of live audiences would take some of the entertainment value and rally-style out of debates.  Herman provides enough information to make a convincing argument that this would be an effective first step to removing crowd-pleasing entertainment from what should be politically-centered coverage and proceedings.