A Debate

Truth and lies are not equal sides in a debate. Facts are the two sides in a debate, and the debate establishes two different views of the same reality, based on the facts and the truth. The appearance of lies as an equal to the truth isn't reason to elevate it to the same stature in any discussion, whether among friends or in the media.

Lies can not be proven. There are no tests except those which established lies are what they are, lies, and nothing more. And nothing to be worth anything but occupying the trash bin of history.

The truth can be tested, it can be argued and debated. It has facts to establish itself in the conversation. It has history to establish itself in time and place. It has events to establish itself in the present. It is itself, simply the truth.

Our goal in the political campaign should be to focus on that, the facts and the truth, and not spend the time arguing lies, proving they are lies, and then using them to argue against the truth. It is a waste of time from the important matters we need to be discussing in the campaign, our country and the people.

When members of Congress use lies in speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate, written into the Congressional Reord, we have lost the respect for the truth. And excusing those lies later as factual misstatements and correcting the record before it officially published is an assualt on our democracy, to blatantly disgreed the truth to express a view as reality based on lies.

When candidates for the higher and highest levels of our national government, especially the presidency continual to use lies to shame an opponent, or worse to attack the President, and not be held accountable, not be held to apologize, not be held to stop expressing lies, it has totally destroyed our democracy.

I don't doubt lies have been a fact of history in congressional and presidential campaigns since the beginning of our country, but it has reached a level where the truth has long been forgotten, left before it had a chase to be a part of it. The truth doesn't exist anymore beyond some in the media calling the candidates out.

But the people didn't hear their words, they're not listening. They're only listening to the candidates they like telling them lies. Even the voters have lost any sense of the truth and the facts. They believe what they know is true and factual because it's what they want to believe, and all the facts telling them otherwise is lost on them.

Such is the state of campaigns today. And until this changes, I will not watch any debate or any media discussion on the issues when and where lies are part of the presentation and discussion by the candidates and the media. Lies are not on the same level of the truth and facts, and even when the media exposes lies as lies, the candidates persist in espousing them.

I simply will not listen. That is my choice as it is theirs to use lies. Lies are not part of the discussion we need to be having about this country and the people. And when I hear facts and the truth, I will listen. I will be engaged in the conversation. I will be in the debate.

But only when there are no lies being said by candidates or people demanding equality as facts and the truth. Reality, our reality now with the state of this country and the lives of people, demands facts and the truth. Only the truth.