by Logan Scisco
Over the last few years, Extemp Central has done a breakdown of the topic areas for the Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament. Since there is usually some overlap of topics, this year’s brief will be much more condense and I will attempt to summarize the topic areas in five to seven sentences or less. This is meant to shed some insight into what challenges extempers might face at the CFL tournament this weekend. Extempers should click on the Ex Files tab above and look at the 2008 and 2009 analysis to get an idea of what issues extempers face at CFL and to also better understand how the tournament works. Extempers should also consult Mirza Germovic’s breakdown of the tournament, which was posted late last week.
Extempers should note that there are nine topic areas, but there are only eight rounds at the tournament. The topic areas are drawn randomly before each round. This means that one of the topic areas listed below WILL NOT be used. Also, the tournament seems to be pushing a more domestic centered approach to the event this year. As a final quick piece of advice, the worst topic areas always seems to find its way into semi-finals or finals, so be prepared to face them there.
Topic Area #1: U.S. Politics
A domestic politics topic has been missing the last few years from the Grand Nationals, but its back this year after a contentious 2010 midterm election and with the 2012 presidential election gearing up. Extempers will want to make sure that they have articles ready to go on the main GOP challengers, like Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Ron Paul, and maybe Sarah Palin, but they should also have some recent articles on why some presidential contenders like Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee, and Donald Trump chose not to run. Expect to get questions sizing up candidates and if the GOP field is weak. Extempers should also be prepared to answer questions about the 2012 Senate elections, where Democrats are defending nearly twice as many seats as Republicans and where races in Virginia and Missouri may make all the difference AND you’ve got a potentially explosive series of recall elections in Wisconsin to consider. Finally, the U.S. politics area may assess how voters are perceiving issues for the coming election and how healthcare, the economy, immigration reform, taxes, and the Paul Ryan deficit plan could impact races (i.e. the special election in NY-26).
Topic Area #2: World Environmental Issues
Of all the topic areas, I hate this one the most so expect to see it late in the tournament. Honestly, compared to past years when extempers have had to confront agricultural policy and things of that nature, this is pretty tame, but since extempers rarely talk about environmental issues it can still be daunting area. Cutting any UN reports on climate change may help for this topic area, as well as briefings from the World Food Program and other agencies with environmental concerns. Food shortages in developing countries, a lack of available farmland in some African countries that are experiencing population strain, pollution in developing countries like India and China, climate change’s impact on places like Bangladesh due to rising sea levels, and alternative energy research are all potential environmental issues. The big boogeyman in this round, outside of climate change, has to be nuclear power in light of the Japanese earthquakes, so extempers should have a good handle on that issue and extempers should also be prepared to discuss the reaction to environmental disasters, whether they be from the earthquake/tsunami in Japan or the tornado outbreak and flooding in the United States.
Topic Area #3: International Areas of Conflict
Well, you can’t get much more broad than this. Pretty much anywhere that there’s a global problem is ripe for this topic area, so Libya, Syria, any Arab country with protests, protests in Spain, the recent violence in Sudan over Abyei, the recent announcements of President Obama’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Afghan and Iraq wars, North Korea, Iran, etc. are all fair game. As a topic area writer, this would be the easiest topic area to write questons for because it is so broad, but keep in mind that with a broad area like this other extempers could be getting questions that are very similar to you. Judges will know a lot by now about Afghanistan, Iraq, and to some extent Libya and some of the violence in the Middle East, so you may want to shy away from those topics if you can bring some interesting analysis into the Syrian issue or another conflict like Sudan. This is not to say that you should avoid Afghanistan, Iraq, etc., but you really want to make your analysis stand out and unique and avoid the usual talking points if you want to make an impact on the round (but I’d argue that this advice ONLY applies in elimination rounds, don’t worry about prelims).
Topic Area #4: World Leaders
This is a really interesting topic area because it is more biographical and you don’t see this pop up very often. Keep in mind that “world leaders” may not mean simply the leader of a country. Instead, it may mean the leader of a political movement, a terrorist organization, some kind of constitutional monarch (see the House of Windsor), or international organization (see Dominique Strauss-Kahn). Most of the questions in this round will probably be of a political nature or how the impact of a leader’s decision may impact the future of their country in the long-term (i.e. how Vladimir Putin’s planned run for the Russian presidency in 2012 would impact the future of Russian democracy). Extempers should have a good grasp on notable world leaders, but even minor ones, for this round and it may not be a bad idea to go to Wikipedia and get a profile of some world leaders before you leave for Washington D.C. Just don’t cite it in a round!
Topic Area #5: Domestic Economic Issues
All generations of extempers must be familiar with economic issues, but this current crop of extempers has to be more skilled in discussing them than past waves only because of current political and societal conditions. Inflation concerns, unemployment, unions, the depressed state of the housing market, and the national debt/budget deficit will all be hot topics in this round. The trick in this round, as always, is to avoid throwing out tons of statistics and failing to provide an easy narrative for the audience to understand. If you go to NFLTV, Chris Palmer, who has coached several national finalists and the 2008 United States Extemp national champion, breaks down how extempers should tackle economic issues and it comes from a lecture at the Sunvitational earlier in the year. It’s an hour long video, but if you are unfamiliar with unemployment, which is what most of the video centers on, it is worth a look. Also, make sure you understand what Paul Ryan’s budget plan is about and it may not hurt to try to find a copy of it online and/or some think tank analysis of it.
Topic Area #6: Health and Social Issues
This is the dreaded social issues round that most extempers hate talking about. There could be some overlap between this topic area and the Bill of Rights, but expect to get questions about the Affordable Care Act, immigration reform, Social Security, abortion, the rising costs of medical care in the United States, gay marriage, and obesity. All of these issues have provoked intense political battles over the last year, so there is a lot of information that extempers have to be able to sift through in this round. Social issues is always a stressful round because judges have ingrained beliefs about how they think the world should work on these issues. The trick is that you must give as much equal time to both sides as possible and be respectful in your disagreement. If you come off like a partisan hack, you might just be headed back home without a trophy.
Topic Area #7: Homeland Security Issues
By this point, extempers have probably discussed national defense and terrorism on more than ten occassions during the year, so this topic should be relatively simple. Conservatives have blasted the TSA for much of the last year and invasive pat downs at airports have created an uproar and calls for the TSA to use behavioral profiling in airports, which government forces are not keen on. Protecting America’s borders (especially from rising drug violence in Mexico) must also be considered as well as the impact of America’s raid that killed Osama bin Laden. For the first time at a national tournament, Osama bin Laden is no longer a boogeyman to use in terrorism speeches, but now you may have to impact his death. Other important homeland security issues for extempers to consider include how well prepared the United States is for a cyber attack, if other parts of America’s infrastructure are vulnerable to terror attacks, domestic terror threats, waterboarding & other interrogation techniques. the future of Gitmo, and the renewal of controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act by the Senate.
Topic Area #8: Bill of Rights Issues
As pointed out previously, there might be some overlap between this topic area and social issues because some social issues like gun rights, abortion, and the death penalty fall under the purview of the Bill of Rights. Having a pocket constitution handy for this round may not be a bad idea and extempers should make sure to invoke some constitutional ideas into their speeches since its basically a quasi constitutional issues round. The death penalty will likely have a couple of questions since Illinois abolished it this year and in light of the Arizona shooting in January, gun rights might be back on the table. Furthermore, recent Supreme Court cases on privacy and prison overcrowding, which were linked to in yesterday’s R&D, could emerge in this round. Extempers should expect that this is nothing more than a social issues round under a constitutional blanket, so they should be prepared to discuss the evolution of the constitutionality of certain topics (i.e. how the Supreme Court has viewed capital punishment, abortion rights, the Second Amendment, etc). Finally, DO NOT forget federalism! That Tenth Amendment has seen a rebirth by states like Texas and others, who want less federal interference in state policy making.
Topic Area #9: World Economic Issues
The final topic area is the global economy, but since there are not very many international topic areas this year, this topic area could also apply to certain countries economic status. Economists have recently downgraded growth rates in China, which may have some impact on global businesses. Additionally, Spain’s economic problems have produced political unrest and debt problems across the euro zone have created domestic upheaval by fiscally responsible countries in the EU because taxpayers do not want to bail others out. High oil prices have also caused some to question whether the global economy, which is very fragile, will be disrupted and the upheaval in places like Libya is only making supply crunches worse. Finally, a lack of economic opportunity is creating unrest in places like Singapore and South Africa and it was what spurred on the recent wave of Arab revolts, which began in Tunisia. Economic mobility and stability are very closely linked and governments that have long ignored this problem are coming under fire from their populations.
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