Wagenheim,Mitch

Mitch Wagenheim Assistant Debate Coach – Shawnee Mission Northwest Debated 4 Years at Shawnee Mission West University of Kansas Class of 2019

I am a big fan of the line-by-line debate, but don’t lose sight of the overall picture of the round and how arguments interact with each other. Every speech should have clash and every argument you make should mean something. In your final speeches, I expect to see analysis of how your arguments interact with each other and with the other team’s arguments. I am a much better judge for a politics DA and case debate, as opposed to a deep critical theory debate. While I do have enough experience to adjudicate a dense K debate, you will have to do more explanation than you may have to with other judges.
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Ethics/Clipping: If you have evidence (a recording which is clear), and feel there was a substantial violation, by all means, bring it to my attention.

Disclosure – You should to disclose unless the aff is a new plan with new advantages.

CX – You should use this time to advance arguments; it’s another speech so use it accordingly.

DA’s – If you are going for a DA, there must be some good impact calc in the block and in the 2NR. The 2AC should have impact defense in the 2AC. Turns case arguments are easy ways to garner significant offense and put you in a better position to win the round. I would not recommend going for “zero risk of ” unless there is a dropped argument; almost always there is some risk, however minimal of something happening. Comparing evidence, especially on the UQ/Link levels is very valuable: if there is a major contest and no one has made any comparative analysis, I will do the comparison after the round or you can make that comparison clear for me.

Case – Impact calculus should always be a part of the 2AR, unless the neg is all-in on T. Impact defense is very important. The aff will almost always have a risk of solvency, but well-used evidence and analytics can minimize or eliminate this. Too many teams undercover the case, so a strong case debate with adequate offence is a good way to win the round.

CPs – I am not fond of Delay or Process counterplans, but in the absence of a well-articulated theoretical objection, they can be run. If you want to run such arguments, make sure you have a good defense against theory or you will lose that arg. Permutations ought to include the entirety of the plan plus part of the counterplan, but a severance or intrinsic perm that is masked and doesn’t get a theory arg from the neg can also work.

Theory – Your violation must have a serious impact that is articulated well if you want me to vote the other team down on theory. Every theory argument should have an interpretation, violation, standards, and a voting issue. If these are not present, it does not rise to the threshold of an argument and will not get the ballot.

Topicality – I default to competing interpretations, but can be persuaded otherwise. Limits are always important, but overlimiting can have just as large an impact as underlimiting. It is your job to explain why your interpretation is better for debate. Case lists and topical versions of the affirmative will go a long way to winning my ballot.

K’s – I believe the aff should get to weigh their impacts versus the impacts of the K and the neg gets to weigh the alt against the plan. There needs to be a very clear explanation of the alt and how it functions both inside and outside of the round. While I will evaluate every argument, I am not fond at all of arguments saying that debate is intrinsically bad (racist, sexist, etc.). If you choose to run such arguments, feel free to do so, knowing that you are fighting an uphill battle and will have to do more work to respond to the other team. Note: I do not believe that links of omission are valid arguments unless you convince me otherwise, the argument that there are infinite amount of topics the 1AC could have discussed, which explodes the burden of the aff, is very persuasive and has to be badly mishandled for a link of omission to be won.

Non-Plan Affirmatives – I think the aff ought to defend the theoretical implementation of a topical policy option. I can be persuaded otherwise, but it takes work and a well-argued T violation will win the round. If you win the debate on framework and the line by line, I have to vote for you and will assuming you do the better debating.