Keane,+Tom

Tom Keane Dallas Jesuit Number of YEARS Judging: 15

With a few glaring exceptions, I attempt to adapt to the debaters rather than forcing the debaters to adapt to me. However, I do have a few predispositions that are nearly set in stone and there are a few other things about how I approach a debate that I think you should know:


 * Evidence ** : You only get credit for the parts of the card that you actually read. It doesn’t matter if the unread part of the card provides a great warrant for your claim if you didn’t actually read that part of the card. In my view, a strong analytical argument with a good warrant is a lot better than a short unwarranted card.


 * The Resolution and Debates About Debate: ** I firmly believe that the educational benefits of debate are at their highest when there is some degree of predictability regarding what the debate is going to be about. That puts the burden on the affirmative team to defend the resolution or a specific example of a resolutional action. It’s going to be very hard for an affirmative to win my ballot while claiming they don’t have to defend the resolution. However, I do think that issues of style and the types of evidence that we privilege are fine for discussion within the context of a debate about the topic, but that's where that discussion should take place. The negative obviously is going to have much greater leeway to critique the topic or debate itself.


 * Topicality ** : I love a good topicality debate, and the affirmative needs to be topical. I lean a bit more towards the view that topicality is a game of competing frameworks for debate. As such, each team would need to articulate how debate on the topic would be better under their interpretation. That being said, I could easily be convinced to view it another way if a team argues it well enough.


 * Fiat and Constitutionality of Plan/CP Action ** : This is the other area where my views probably become highly out-of-step with the debate community, and where my approach in-round is not likely to be swayed by the debaters. My view of fiat is that the plan or CP will not be overturned/revoked by the actor that passes it. That means if the plan is done via legislation, Congress won’t undo it, the President won’t revoke an executive order, and the Court won’t overturn its ruling. In my view, fiat does not protect you from having the plan/CP overturned by another branch of government. My approach to fiat is based on two things: (1) How other branches respond to the actions of the others is an important facet of policy making in the real world. In the debate context, I don’t want that discussion limited to the politics DA; and (2) I think my approach creates more ground to oppose the plan/CP. A team can now legitimately argue that the plan/CP doesn’t solve because it would get undone by one of the other branches of government. Whether that would happen is typically up to the other team to prove, but if you run a plan or CP that is blatantly unconstitutional (e.g., a CP to have the President unilaterally modify or abrogate a statute), then I’ll vote on it, with our without evidence, as long as the other team makes the argument. I've done it before, and I have no problem with doing it again. And, just to be clear, do not think you can get away with writing “the Supreme Court will not strike down the counterplan” into the text.


 * Theory ** : Theory is one area where I am very unhappy about how things have developed over the last few years, and I completely expect that my views are likely to get me struck by many, but so be it. I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the idea of the negative getting conditional or dispositional counterplans, and I probably tend to err a bit towards the affirmative on those issues. But the thing that really bothers me is how multiple conditional counterplans has become a common negative strategy. If your negative strategy hinges upon running multiple conditional counterplans, then I’m probably not the right judge for you.


 * Disads ** : I love a good DA, and they're a core part of any negative strategy. But it’s important to tell a link story that is as specific as possible. In general, I’m pretty receptive to strong analytical arguments, and weak generic link stories are particularly susceptible to being carved up by the other team, even if they don’t have a single card. But a more specific link story makes that harder for the affirmative. Also, while it is obviously beneficial to have offensive arguments against a DA, it is not essential. I have no problem assigning no risk to a DA based on pure defense, especially on the link level. A negative team doesn't get rewarded just for having read a weak argument. That means that it is not all about the uniqueness debate in a link vs. link turn scenario, especially in a politics debate.


 * Kritiks ** : As a debater, I almost never ran them, but that doesn't mean that I have a problem with them as a judge. So, if you win the argument I'll vote for it. But, there are a few things you might want to know. First, I am not well read on the prevailing K literature of the era, so don't assume I know what your author's thesis is. For example, if I'm going to need to have read the collected works of Zizek to understand your K, you might want to try something else. That means you’re going to have to spend some time explaining the argument and its implications. Second, I am open aff framework arguments against the K, but I’m certainly not going to knee-jerk in favor of them either. Finally, Ks are at their most persuasive when you can provide a coherent link and impact that are specific to the plan. I find generic Ks to be much less persuasive.


 * Impact Analysis ** : I cannot overstate how vitally important this is. Don’t just throw out terms like “nuclear war” or “extinction” without telling me how to compare impacts, both in magnitude, likelihood, and timeframe, and how I am to evaluate the impacts when magnitude, likelihood and timeframe don’t all go in the same direction. If you don’t do that, I’ll do it myself, and there’s every chance that you won’t like the decision that I make. Additionally, this is not something that you should be ignoring throughout the debate until the 2NR or 2AR. If you leave all your impact analysis until then, things are not going to go well for you, since those speeches are not the time for new arguments. Also, if you read an impact in the 1AC or the 1NC and never mention it again, don't expect that I'll give any weight to it at the end of the debate. Finally, you should be scrutinizing the other side’s impact evidence. They may say “nuclear war” or “extinction,” but 9 times out of 10 their evidence probably won’t come close to saying that, so point that out!

-You will be punished for stealing prep time, it is cheating. The first violation will result in lost speaker points, further violations will likely result in a loss. -I will protect the 2NR against new 2AR arguments, but in any other speech, its the job of the other team to point out new arguments and why those should be rejected (though it won’t take much work) -It's better to specify your agent. -Big impact turn throwdowns are always fun (and good for your speaker points too!) -Don't neglect the case debate. Spending time making solid defensive arguments against the solvency and harms is probably better spent than reading another weak DA in the 1NC. -Rudeness means that your speaker points will suffer
 * Other random thoughts ** :