The Stage Is Set

Besides another pesky lawsuit by the cast of usual characters, the 2008 political stage has been set. Those who are running have qualified, and we can expect the next couple of months to start to sound very silly. It will sound silly because current elected officials who are not running for office this year, candidates who are, and the media will all jocky for position on issues that the average resident could care less about. Some community groups will hold candidate meet-and-greets in an attempt to introduce candidates to their residents, but for the most part most residents will have to rely on our local news outlets and the Chamber of Commerce question and answer session that plays on Access Osceola to base their decision on. The questions asked will be from the same media outlets who already have a hard time asking real questions week to week in their traditional publications so the public will again lose out on a true vetting process. While we have witnessed some improvements in the journalistic integrity of some of our local media over the past year, there is still a great divide between the views of the average resident and the politician friendly media.

What the community needs is a new forum in which to inspect the candidates they will be voting on. In a community built on the buying and selling of commodities such as cattle and citrus, we are sure that the concept of "inspecting the goods" is not a foreign one. What we need is some type of candidate 'Rodeo' where the public gets a chance to ask questions in an open and honest format so they actually get to try out candidates before they are stuck with them for four years. No censorship. No time limits. No membership and $20.00 required. In this true spirit of American politics we should also allow the candidates to trade questions amongst themselves in spirit of a real debate. In America, we do not do well when politicians are elected in a vacuum void of honest debate. Sterilized and sanitized question and answer sessions are not the day to day business that face elected officials, so why would we trust in that format to elect them? We should not.

Let's open the doors to the community facility at Heritage Park and invite the public to the facility that they own to ask the questions of candidates they want to ask. Instead of protecting the incumbents and those who have been handpicked by a few monied donors, lets throw them in the stadium and see who is left politically standing. Let's give the public a chance to ask the questions that should be asked and return our system of government back to one that our fore-fathers would be proud of. Maybe if we give the public a chance to see the politicians in action we can avoid electing more rodeo clowns that duck in a barrel when the public comes charging at them. Let them debate.