What I’d Like to See in the Final Debate

Given that over 60 million people watched the last debate and it represents a unique opportunity for American people to be educated and informed, here’s 5 things I’d see in the final Presidential debate, in a more ideal world:

1. A discussion of foreign policy that includes touchy subjects like the conflicts currently occurring in Yemen, Syria and the South Sudan with some debate over what America’s role should be in foreign struggles that create humanitarian crises.
2. A dialogue on climate change that acknowledges that even if all current global commitments are met, the world will warm substantially.
3. A discussion about health care policy that recognizes that essentially all other wealthy countries have solved the problem of rapidly increasing costs with a government option.
4. A debate over how to reform America’s prison policies that see us locking up nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners, leading to devastating effects on individuals and families. These policies also require spending enormous amounts of money on incarceration and losing the economic productivity of the incarcerated and paroled.
5. More than two voices on the stage. While I disagree with many positions held by Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, it astounds me that we exclude them from the debates. Surely we would all benefit from being exposed to a spectrum of ideas and solutions instead of just 2.