Taylor's Takes: There's a Massachusetts debate tonight?!

You probably don’t even know it, but there’s a debate between Mike Minogue and Maura Healey tonight.

The debate is taking place on WBZ-TV at 5:30pm. Because that’s the time everyone is in the mood for a political debate, right? You just got home from work, dinner’s not ready yet, the kids are acting crazy, and you’re still in your work clothes. I know for me that’s the exact time when I’m ready to take in some political discourse.

Sense the sarcasm?

It actually probably doesn’t even matter anymore when a debate is televised, or even if it is televised at all.

And I’m speaking about the state-level debates on down. Presidential debates will (I hope) always be primetime events. In fact, I’d like to see them promoted like a UFC card. Let’s get a few of the hot Congressional races to feature in some quick-hitting debates before the main event.

"And I’m speaking about the state-level debates on down."

I may not even have known myself that the first Massachusetts gubernatorial debate of the general election was taking place tonight had I not been invited to a watch party hosted by Minogue’s running-mate-by-default Shawn Oliver.

I wish I could go. But at 35 years old with a wife and three kids, I can’t get hyped to go out at 5:30 on a work night to watch something that I probably won’t watch live at home.

I’ll catch the highlights for this one.

And that’s why I think these debates aren’t heavily advertised by the campaigns. They don’t need to be.

Let’s whittle this down a little bit. How many people do you know who still watch local network news? And out of those, how many are sitting down on the sofa at 5:30 on a Thursday afternoon? And how many of those remaining working stiffs want to be tied to the television for an hour watching a political debate?

I rest my case. Only the die-hard cheerleaders for either campaign will be watching this event live. And that’s not the demographic that either candidate is looking to capture.

Everyone else that will be ingesting the debate will either be watching it later in full, having recorded the live broadcast, or will take in the social media highlights pushed out from either campaign.

Local political debates have basically become the late-night talk shows of politics. You know they’re on at some point. You don’t know who the guests are going to be. But you know that any good parts, if there are any, will be splashed across Instagram and TikTok the next day. So why even bother?

That’s why you haven’t seen any advertisements from Mike Minogue featuring him doing pull-ups and talking about how he’s training for debating Maura Healey. They both know that practically nobody will be watching, and they’ll use that to their advantage by cherry-picking the best moments that portray strength and a command of the issues over their opponent and post a 20-second reel on their respective social media pages.

It’s just a shame that politics doesn’t play out in real-time anymore. Much like none of us are watching the same sitcom once a week and talking about it in the office the next day.

Maura Healey will splice up Mike Minogue and do her best to liken him to Trump. And that’s red meat for her base. Easy slam dunk.

I can only hope that Minogue sets aside the Mr. Nice Guy act and lambastes Healey over issues that actually affect all Massachusetts voters on a day-to-day level.

We all know Minogue loves working out in his campaign ads. The question is, will he bring his own workout equipment to tonight’s debate? Or will he be using Maura Healey as his proverbial punching bag?

P.S.

If I hear the word “Zyn” mentioned once I swear to God I’m throwing the remote at the tv.