Want to fix American politics? Start by copying ‘The Great British Baking Show’

There are two important contests going on right now on television. Of course, “The Great British Baking Show” is a created world, set in a tent in a park, where the producers set the rules and judges judge. “The Great British Baking Show” invites you to consider every baker as an individual, applying personal solutions idiosyncratically to the problem of deliciousness. With the American election entering its debate phase, I would like to propose an alternative to the usual business — antagonistic, frustrating, inequitable and rarely productive of enlightening answers — modeled on “The Great British Baking Show”: a “signature” challenge in which the candidates offer an approach to a social, geopolitical or scientific issue close to their heart, assuming they have one; a “technical” challenge ; and the “showstopper,” where each must bring a hypothetical crisis to a reasonable conclusion. Television Why ‘The Great British Baking Show’ is too good for this cruel, cruel world Proving that everything good and pure in this world will one day be snatched from us, the news broke this week that Mary Berry, the improbably named, immaculately coiffed cookbook author who has served as a judge on “The Great British Baking Show” since its inception in 2010, will be leaving the series.