U.S. Presidential debate

[kandrathe]

Worse than the candidates is that society apparently is ok with this.

I don't think they are OK with it. Most everyone is disgruntled.

To me it is showing the failure of democracy. Voting doesn't happen because of the issues but because of hatred towards a candidate or one liners.

I think I wrote the same things when GW Bush was running for president.....but your society apparently hasn't learned anything from that disaster.

Our problem is rooted in the party processes in how their candidate list is selected. It tends to be more related to celebrity (from the limelight money can buy), rather than the substance of their positions. This is in a way a too much democracy problem, where the hoi polloi backed the ones they wanted. The media, in a way, is complicit in this travesty, in that they are more interested in a good story, than a good President.

The Republicans ended up with a candidate no one wanted to endorse. They had so many candidates running, that no one had a substantial edge or endorsement, and too many people to thoroughly vet. The guy who used his celebrity didn't have to buy ads, but kept himself in the media spotlight by being outrageous. When he began this fiasco, I didn't think he had the character to be President. It turns out he's more of a slime than I thought. Issues are irrelevant if the person is a criminal, which it seems to be the case. At this point, I will be more upset if Trump wins, as I believe him to be the more offensive criminal.

The Democrats torpedoed the socialist their party probably would have nominated over Hillary. I think Sanders should have been the Democrats candidate. They've stacked their deck with super delegates so that the establishment party core gets a big hand in selecting their person. Sanders made them reveal their flawed system.

Of course this is not an American problem only. In most countries politics are like that today, and in countries like Russia things are not much better.

We don't yet kill off the opposition party, or throw them in a gulag. But, we may be edging closer. We have been in a cycle of hyper investigation of the opposition until enough muck raking justifies a "special prosecutor" who usually is able to trap some "enemies" in the act of perjury. Liars can't stop their lying. It's hard to know sometimes what is befuddlement, deception, or a lack of memory.