Politics Lecture
ENDI 4-Week
EMORY
Herndon
Debating the Politics Disad [1/2]
I. Humanities greatest moments
A. 12-17-1903 – First human flies
B. 1906 – First television is watched
C. 1885 – first gasoline driven vehicle
D. 2006 – GBN loses 17 debates on the MILC disas
E. circa 1990 – the politics disad was born.
I. Politics is amazing
A. get to choose your own uniqueness
B. Net benefit to everything
C. the impacts are always external
D. rewards hard work – story about beating John Rains b/c I had better uniqueness cards and he complimented by insulting
II. The Real basics of the politics disad
A. Types of disads
1. Rider DAs
2. Backlash DAs
3. Agenda Crowd-out DAs
4. Bipart DA’s
5. Obama agenda DA’s
6. Diplomatic Capital DA’s
B. Link argument glossary
1. Political Capital – it’s a lot like being a Don in the mafia – all about favors –
2. Flip Flops key to capital
3. Olive Branches/Concessions
4. Focus
5. Public Popularity
6. Base Support – the gold standard
7. Winners Win – lion tamer theory
8. Winners-Lose – banker [party will backlash]
9. Bipar/Partisan
10. Use these in conjunction – as long as they are unique
C. UNIQUENESS DEBATING - **What its all about**
1. direction of uniqueness = risk of a Link
2. not about quantity – its about quality
a. research warrants for why it will pass – not claims
b. look for these things while researching – make these while debating
i. insiders/experts – cut prodicts [Barnes story]
ii. vote count cards
iii. predictive
iv. momentum
3. This is how you pick your disad – Uniqueness is what is important – the link will come
4. “Does Uniqueness overwhelm the Link?” – Jason Peterson
a. this just means there is a risk
b. the aff is foreclosing their ability to win offense on the disad
c. if this is sad make the impact turn the case & get big as possible OR the CP solves
d. cut 1 card that it is close – could be tight to make sure you are okay
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Politics Lecture
ENDI 4-Week
EMORY
Herndon
Debating the Politics Disad [2/2]
III. Elections Disad
A. I don’t like it
1. uniqueness isn’t ever very clear
2. link story seems miniscule at best
3. no PC key to the agenda post election cards [what will the congress let the president do]
B. if you choose to debate it anyway
1. follow all uniqueness rules from the agenda disads below
2. construct a link that carves out part of the population
a. ohio voters key
b. soccer moms from florida
3. impact is the best part of the disad
a. make it as big as you want – it is potentially infinite
b. makes sure it turns the case – president will do the plan if he wins
V. Tips – things I’ve learned – reminder for you to do
A. Generic links are bad for the neg – good for the aff – be as specific as possible as early as possible
B. Make sure you are on the right side of the link before picking
C. win the uniqueness – win the uniqueness – win the uniqueness
D. research & use the link uniqueness file
E. be prepared to answer impact turns – don’t only have one impact
F. Read an external impact early, read internal impacts in the block
G. Know your uniqueness tricks and jargon
H. Know the literature
I. Write a story that is as specific as possible
J. The popularity of bad politics disads is just that . . . bad
K. It is probably an Obama Bad Topic
L. Read links that make politics a net benefit to your counterplan
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Politics Lecture
ENDI 4-Week
EMORY
Herndon
Researching politics
1. Search the week before – Obama congress – to create a list of disads
2. make friends to find out what other disads are being read
a. college friends
b. camp friends from across the country
c. use cross-x and files to purchase indexes to find out what will be read
3. create your list of all possible disads and start researching
a. uniqueness both ways
b. mpx defense to most – unless uniqueness is overwhelming in a particular way you don’t need mpx
c. IL answers to the impact you want to read
4. Once you decide uniqueness is one sided pick a disad based on that – all good debaters know this
a. Brute force strategy for researching politics
i. type title into google news & lexis-nexis and read EVERY article
ii. copy articles into WORD and change key words to bold to improve processing speed
b. finesse strategy for researching politics
i. refine your searches to make sure you cover everything that is in the lit
ii. cut enough articles to guarantee uniqueness – if you can’t guarantee – keep working
c. things you do regardless of your strategy
i. make a list of the non-unique warrants – cut/write answers for the block
ii. make sure Obama is key to the passage – research this including phrases like “political capital”
5. impact research
a. if you are aff don’t impact turn – research link turns & have uniqueness
b. make sure you have a big external and internal impact scenarios
c. be prepared for mpx turns before you read a disad
d. go old school to look for new and varied mpx
i. think tanks discuss proposed bills in congress
ii. congressional testimony is great for economy internal links
6. Link uniqueness file – research these for the aff & Neg
a. PC – yes/no
b. congress likes each other – doesn’t like each other
c. Obama getting wins now – Obama losing now
d. Bipart now / Partisan now
e. Obama making concessions now – no concessions now
f. Obama popular / unpopular
7. Have a solid internal link file
a. produced one at most camps so they are online
b. research what is key to the agenda at the start of each semester to improve your link arguments
c. use old school cards to support your updated link & uniqueness arguments
8. Have an accordion that doesn’t really need to change up that much
a. obama bad link file
b. obama good link file
c. scenario file
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Politics Lecture
ENDI 4-Week
EMORY
Herndon
Aff versus Politics
A. like debating the disad – hard work is rewarded
B. read theoretical link turns that are generic – tough for the neg to answer
C. throw out junk arguments to keep the neg from unloading
D. Research link turns for your aff
1. be specific as possible – this is the affs only advantage
2. at a minimum have 3 link turns for both sides
3. research all parts of the plan text to keep people from PICing with a politics net benefit
E. be willing to sandbag good uniqueness cards – only one is required in the 2ac
F. How to put together a good 2ac block
1. don’t read more than 1 card making an argument
2. read internal link defense to the disad
3. read impact defense to the disad
4. throw some of these junk theory arguments in there – these argument suck but get you time back
a. plan is immediate OR bottom of the docket
b. fiat is a magic wand – no risk of politics
c. congress won’t backlash against themselves
d. not a should question – not legitimate
e. perm / intrinsicness – disad isn’t competitive
f. congress votes no
G. Answer the ‘net benefit’ parts of the politics disad
1. The Counterplan links to the politics disad
2. The similarities between the two are a link
H. Do scouting at tournaments
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