Hi, John Don Van here for Intelligent Squared US.

And as you might know, every now and then, as a bonus, we dip into our archive to resurface

some interesting excerpts from debates past, especially when they can still add something

to a topic that is hot in the headlines right now.

Like for example, we are just days away from the start of the Republican Convention.

And as it happens, we did a debate back in April 2013, where we had four conservatives

debating the future of the Republican Party and what it would take to win the White House.

Remember only months earlier, Barack Obama had been sworn in for his second term after

beating Mitt Romney.

The motion we were debating that night was this.

The GOP must seize the center or die.

So I took a listen to see which points made that night connected to the story of the GOP

that's about to hold its convention.

And the startling thing was hearing how little relates anymore.

How a mere three years ago, none of the four smart people on our stage had even the slightest

hint that a man named Trump was in the party's future.

And how Trump's candidacy has rendered almost quaint, the fine distinctions the debaters

were trying to make that night about what makes a conservative a conservative and about

what it means for the GOP and who should represent the party's future.

Here's what I mean.

Take this exchange which unfolded in the very middle of the debate.

Radio host Laura Ingram, who with Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition were arguing

...