Soap Box

I watched the Republican presidential debates Wednesday night in hopes that - this being the second debate - the people asking questions would steer the subject away from personalities and addressing verbal insults the candidates had made about each other and toward some meaningful dialogue dealing with the mountain of serious issues the next president will have to deal with.

I've heard enough about what the candidates intend to do; now I want to hear about how they're going to do it.

It's not enough to say you're going to rebuild our military, tell me how. Lets hear about troop numbers, ships, planes and hardware and where the money is coming from. Where will the cuts be made to cover the costs?

And what about ISIS? Who will have the guts to actually face the fact that America will eventually have to put a force of some size on the ground and that we may well have to go it alone, without coalitions or allies?

Who has a solution to the growing threat from a belligerent Russia, the expanding military power of China and the loss of American prestige and respect around the world?

It�s one thing to say you're going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, tell me when this is going to happen, how effective it's going to be and how long it's going to take you to persuade Mexico to pay for it and how we handle the border mess until that happens.

Telling us you're going to create jobs is great, but it would be most helpful to know how you're going to do it. Will you attract new business and regain manufacturing that has moved off shore? 

Will you curb the EPA and make them rescind some of their superfluous job-killing regulations? Will you lower the corporate taxes so the U.S. could come in to line with the other countries that are raiding our industries? 

Would you allow thousands of refugees that have been infiltrated by terrorists to come into this nation, and if not what humanitarian measures do you recommend?

What would you do to regain the confidence and friendship of our friend and ally Israel?

And this is just a small sample of the questions that I - and most of my fellow Americans - would like to have answered to decide which candidates they would support in the primaries.

The debate Wednesday night reminded me more of a reality show than a debate as the moderators kept baiting the candidates to expand on what they had previously said about each other, resembling a fifth grade cat fight with children going toe to toe in a �he said, she said� verbal brawl that accomplished nothing toward finding out how a possible leader of the free world would handle the myriad catastrophes that will be passed down by the Obama 
Administration and will require immediate attention.

Who really cares about how Rand Paul feels about Donald Trump and vice versa? What difference does it make if Jeb Bush spoke a few words of Spanish or any of the childish minutiae the television audience was exposed to?

Weren't there much more vital issues? Should we deal with personal differences and expos�s while an eighteen trillion-dollar debt hangs over our heads and there's a deal on the table that will revitalize Iran's export of terrorism and virtually guarantee they'll have a nuclear device in a few years.

Television personalities have an image to protect and a personal standard to uphold, so they are basically looking at the debates from the point an entertainment event, the more tempers, gaffs and laughs the better, and that's not likely to change.

So I'd like to make a suggestion.

Bring in regular ordinary citizens; tax paying, hard working, every day folks who man the front lines and who have to live face to face with the decisions a president makes.

Let them ask anything that is pertinent and screen them just enough to curb repetitiveness.
Let them ask their question, give the candidate three minutes to answer, allow them one follow up question, three more minutes for the candidate and move on.

Have one moderator who has no input except to explain the rules and call questioners forth and keep time.

I think America had enough infighting among the candidates, enough dodging the issues and enough name-calling.

It's nitty gritty time, the people are the ones who elect a president, and they should be the ones who ask the questions.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels