I am not looking forward to this presidential election.  Honestly, I don’t like either candidate in our forced two-party system and would love a third option if one would magically appear.  What bothers me the most is how our monopoly driven media environment has controlled the political debate and forced the conversation to be focused on the most sensationalist and yet, insignificant issues.  These are the issues I would like to see discussed in earnest:

1.) Syria

Why does nobody seemed concerned about this humanitarian crisis and complete act of genocide except Hillary Clinton and me?  It is a travesty that the world has done so little to stop the absolute slaughtering of this country’s citizens by their out of touch leader. It is an atrocity.

2.) The Euro and the austerity crisis in Europe

It’s a global economy people and things like the failing Euro, and the Greek government collapsing matter in a BIG way. Not to mention financial dominance of Germany.  Is nobody else concerned that Germany is being rather heavy-handed regarding their ruling and policy making regarding the Euro?  We cannot afford Europe to fail and we cannot afford a Europe at conflict with itself.

3.) Mexico/Immigration/Drug War

Why is it that nobody is paying attention to the horrible bloody civil war that is happening just South of our border?  Most recently, 50 bodies were found on a freeway in Monterrey Mexico.  Dig out your maps people, this ain’t too far from California. Not to mention our outdated immigration policy which everybody agrees needs to be fixed but not a single politician can have a reasonable conversation with anybody long enough to fix it.

4.) Education

Oh they talk about it, but it is always the same old grumbling revolving around accountability and money but it never makes any sense.  The truth is that Ron Paul sort of had it right – get rid of the Department of Education and let local governments control their education budgets.  The example I always use with students is, don’t donate computers to a school if what they really need is an air conditioner. Education is not a one size fits all endeavor and therefore not a place for the Federal Government.

5.) Health Care

The last presidential election I voted for Hillary Clinton.  Yes, I know she wasn’t on the ballot. I wrote her in.  The reason why I voted for her was because I thought she was the only person on the ballot that understood the health care system and the political environment well enough to quite possibly make some changes. No, I don’t want socialized medicine (just ask my Canadian friends) but there is a middle ground somewhere and the truth is that the people who are making the most amount of money right now are the insurance companies and frankly they don’t deserve it.  I’d rather see the return of rich doctors than rich insurance companies.

6.) Return of Regulation

“Regulation” is an ugly word for many people but there are some industries that are SCREAMING to be regulated; mainly banking and media.  When the government lifted regulations in the 90s that had prevented media monopolies they opened the flood gates for the control of information.  Now most of our TV, radio and newspapers are owned by only a handful of people.  I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t make me comfortable. We need to bust up these monopolies and see the diversity of ideas propagate.

The banking industry was threatened with regulation when we bailed them out – remember that? And they promised they would change. They crossed their hearts and everything.  And then Congress promised they would pass laws and regulate so the bankers wouldn’t be bad ever, ever again and you know what happened? Nothing. Some thinly veiled laws that did absolutely nothing.  I want that fixed dammit and I want it fixed NOW!

But these aren’t the issues that will be discussed during our political debates. No, we will be fighting over gay marriage, abortion, candidate’s personal lives, religious beliefs and all the other morally driven issues we always do. Why? Because they are divisive and make great TV.  Because people can be placed in categories and pitted against each other. Because issues like these make it easy to identify the “bad” guys and prevent people from thinking about larger, more complex problems that will have a much greater impact on the future of our nation and our world.