The Great Debate?

OK, I try hard to keep politics out of this blog.  So I am going to say this once and leave it at that.  

A number of people have asked me if I am going to watch the debate tonight.  My answer is no.  Maybe I would if it was going to be a true debate at which candidates would have to think on their feet and answer the tough questions so many of us are asking.  Instead, they are fed the general themes of the questioning beforehand and their responses are scripted well in advance.  We are not going to hear anything we have not  already heard many time before.  These days debates are no longer opportunities for candidates to address at length their positions on the major issues facing the nation, much like Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas did back in 1858 when they spoke for hours extemporaneously.  More often than not the debates now offer the chance for the candidates to put their foot (or both feet as he case may be) in their mouths when forced to go off script.

Also, it is not a true debate unless all legitimate candidates are allowed to participate.  The Democrats and the Republicans have fought long and hard to exclude Gary Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico who is the Libertarian party's candidate for President and who will be on the ballot in almost every state in the union (after fighting to have his name placed on that ballot).  Johnson was permitted to debate during the primaries when he was running as a Republican.  Now that he is a Libertarian he has nothing to contribute to the discourse on the future of our nation?  You may not support him or his platform, but he has every right to say his piece.  What are the Democrats and Republicans afraid of that they try so hard to exclude Johnson and keep his message from the American people?  If this is a true democracy, as we claim, let the legitimate candidates . . . all of them . . . state their position and then let the American people go to the polls and make up their own minds. 

So this is a just one more in a series of random thoughts I like to share with you from time to time.  Take it for what it is worth.  I won't bring it up again.  I just believe we deserve a lot better than what we are getting.