We have Campaign & Marketing Opportunities tightly controlled by the two major parties.
We used to have "debates",
back when they were sponsored by the League of Women Voters,
but both major Parties decided that the questions were too hard.
Control of the presidential debates has been a ground of struggle for more than two decades. The role was filled by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters (LWV) civic organization in 1976, 1980 and 1984.[5] In 1987, the LWV withdrew from debate sponsorship, in protest of the major party candidates attempting to dictate nearly every aspect of how the debates were conducted. On October 2, 1988, the LWV's 14 trustees voted unanimously to pull out of the debates, and on October 3 they issued a press release:
[font size=3]
" The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates...because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."[/font]
According to the LWV, they pulled out because "the campaigns presented the League with their debate agreement on September 28, two weeks before the scheduled debate. The campaigns' agreement was negotiated 'behind closed doors' ... [with] 16 pages of conditions not subject to negotiation. Most objectionable to the League...were conditions in the agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings.... [including] control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for the press and other issues."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_debates
Kudos to
The League of Women Voters for "no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."
Now THERE is an organization I can STAND with proudly.
What once were called "debates" have fallen to the level of mild infotainment
complete with
Gotcha Journalism more concerned with the best
One Liners than actual policy or substantive differences between the two parties.
What is MORE important to the American citizen is NOT what was discussed in these faux "debates",
but what major issues were AVOIDED or IGNORED, because the Two parties absolutely AGREE 100%.
These would be issues like:
*The destruction of the Working Class in America
*The Plight of the Poor
*The erosion of Constitutionally protected Civil Liberties
*The expanding powers of the "Unitary Executive"
*Privatized Prisons
*Privatized ANYTHING that used to be in
The Commons
*The negative effects of so called "Free Trade" and the mythological "Free Market"
*Blowback from the "War on Terror"
*the growing disparity of WEALTH in America
*"Too Big to Fail"
*Support or Demonization of the emerging Transparent Democracies in Latin America
*Black Box Voting & verifiable Elections
*The Failed War on Drugs
*Out of Control Military Spending
...does anybody remember ANY of the above important issues discussed in the 2012 Presidential Debates? ALL of the above affect every single American every single day, but none of the above were "debate" issues between the two major parties.
It is easy to become distracted by parsing out
What was Said,
but more difficult to discern what was NOT said because BOTH Parties agree 100%, especially when "they" control all aspects of the "debates".
Its not that important anyway.
Its ONLY our Democracy that is at stake here.
You will know them by their [font size=3]
WORKS,[/font]
= new reply since forum marked as read
read crap flinging crazy parades) from certain networks.It will allow me to use much less effort in avoiding the screeching insanity that is certain to prove my foregone conclusion that none of them are fit for elected office.At any level.
- K&R
