If a purely partisan conclusion is to be made, Democrats will say Beto won the debate and Republicans will say Abbott won the debate. I’d like to take a different approach. As a former debater, I’d like to take a look at the debate techniques used by each candidate.

What we witnessed was Abbott debating like a debater and Beto debating like a politician debater.

What’s the difference?

Debaters prepare with facts and figures. Debaters use research and data to defend and debunk arguments. Politician debaters, on the other hand, are skilled in avoiding direct responses. (Example: Beto avoided responding if he’d take away people’s guns).

Politician debaters introduce new issues throughout the debate to deviate focus from the original argument. This is called changing the frame. (Example: Beto continuously brought up issues even when it was not his turn to speak.)

Politician debaters attach false moral and emotional justification to their arguments in an effort to appeal to the emotional side of the audience. (Example: Beto used the Uvalde tragedy to justify gun confiscation.)

Unfortunately, emotional appeal is a very effective tool for politician debaters. This is because the average brain cannot process facts or figures as quickly as it can process emotions. As a result, many viewers fall for the false emotional argument of politician debaters.

Why? Because emotion is more powerful to the brain than facts or figures. Beto’s debate advisers know exactly how to appeal to and activate the emotional side of his supporters.

Most of Beto’s advisers are aware of the indoctrination techniques used in public schools to teach emotional thinking instead of critical thinking. So, Beto is advised on what words and emotions to use to activate, trigger, and engage the audience’s emotional thinking and support.

This is where I think a lot of candidates on our Republican side need to take note. You can’t confront an emotionally based argument with intellectual analysis, statistics, facts, or figures. An emotionally indoctrinated audience will not respond to statistics, facts, or figures.

In political debate, audience perception is key and with an American-History illiterate majority, this has to be taken into consideration.

Expose and Educate

For effective communication, you must know your audience to prepare your message. And you must prepare your message so your audience will understand it. Who’s the target audience? There’s an opportunity to appeal to some Democrats and Independents – a majority of who are uninformed or misinformed. In my opinion, this is the key target audience for Abbott.

How do you appeal to these Democrat and independent voters? In my training, I call it, ‘walking the brain to the a-ha moment.’ Emotional thinkers are indoctrinated to mentally connect the dots to reach a conclusion in a different manner than critical thinkers.

Current indoctrination in public schools teaches them to connect the dots with an emotional pattern. Beto supporters connect with him through this emotional pattern.

To counter this you have to start from where they’re at, take them back to the beginning, and then step by step connect the dots through a critical thinking pattern.

Storytelling was another debate technique used to connect with the audience. Both Beto and Abbott used storytelling. Beto used it more because his campaign is strictly emotional. He can’t defend his Democrat policies with facts or figures so he has to appeal to the audience through emotional storytelling. (Example: when Beto talked about people driving for hours to see the debate, how he and his wife are raising a family). These are stories designed to connect and relate with voters.

I train Republicans to effectively counter and debate emotional Democrat arguments. Democrats are used to controlling political debate. They avoid responding with facts or figures to their failed policies by simply smearing opponents or changing the argument.

I believe future Republican candidates will face more emotional arguments in debates that cannot be countered by simple facts or figures. Exposing and educating will be crucial debate techniques that need to be mastered to counter this Democrat scheme and appeal to an evergrowing emotional thinking electorate.

In conclusion, during the debate, Abbott presented facts and figures. Beto presented emotion and smears. Critical thinkers see Abbott as the winner while emotional thinkers see Beto as the winner.

I project Abbott will win the election in November because even though globalists continue to illegally import people from countries that sympathize with socialism and are thus inclined to vote Democrat – Texas is still a majority of conservative freedom-loving people.