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I agree with the other commenters here; the article describes a speech event, not debate. The author complained about the lack of improvisation, but one of the great things about policy debate is that the rebuttals always have to be off the cuff because you're never really sure what your opponents will say until they say it. And policy debate is mean and competitive and maybe unique as far as academic competitions go because the public school kids can be competitive with the private school kids (to a point... but there are a couple of state schools that are among the top teir of college teams right now).
I find political leanings of debate teams vary by region. In my experience, the Northeast is by far the most liberal region, both politically and in terms of what they allow in the debate round; judges are more tolerant of unorthodox rhetorical strategies (using music or rap or, in one round I judged last year, reading from a children's book, or in making philosophical arguments instead of strictly cause-and-effect policy arguments).
