The Presidential Debate I Would Like To See

Someday I would like to watch a presidential debate in which the candidates did not spend the whole time attacking each other's policy proposals (even civilly) but instead discussed what they appreciated about the other person's perspective and vowed to honor the valid and important concerns that the other candidate's platform represented. I would like to see candidates (and a voting public) who feel that whichever of the nominees were to win would make a fine president, worthy of the full support of the nation.

Right now, the debates don't seem worth watching because all we get to see is a big show of disagreement which obscures the hidden agenda that both of our reigning parties share: protecting the interests of big business. What we are seeing is the dominance of a tiny elite class over the rest of the world and somehow people don't realize they're being manipulated because they've been offered a spectacle of competition, much like a sporting event, in which they were encouraged to root for one team over the other. But in reality, both teams are owned by the same corporate conglomerates.

Someday, I would like to see us move beyond this kind of farcical drama and begin an era of genuine collaboration between leaders who truly represent the diverse and varied interests, values, hopes, and aspirations of the American people--and the rest of world, on whom we have such a huge impact.

Some people may think it's no use imaging such a world when that reality is so very far away, but picturing new ways of doing things is the only way that innovative change came come about. If everyone spent half the time that they currently spend complaining about the way things are discussing instead their vision for the way things ought to be, I think we'd start to see positive changes happening a lot quicker.