Publisher’s Note: 2VR is happy to see our own Vermont junior Senator Bernie Sanders in the presidential conversation – see our site for our “take” on Senator Sanders’ record and his “sheep dogging” for Hillary Clinton and the mainstream Democrats. Given the absurd corporate, discursive, and structural limitations of TeeVee “debates” in the U.S. of Empire, we were pleasantly surprised by the outcome, although we agree with Stephen Lendman’s final 2 sentences in his analysis below. Where was Joe Biden? Who cares. Free Vermont, and long live the UNtied States!

Political debates are pre-scripted, well-rehearsed theater, especially presidential ones. They don’t edify. They insult. Avoid them. You’ll learn nothing.

Slogans, posturing, and meaningless rhetoric substitute for substance, especially on issues mattering most. Candidates avoid controversy. Forthrightness isn’t their long suit.

Staged PR theater called “debates” give unworthy candidates a platform for willful deception – demagoguery, making promises later broken if elected. Why anyone wastes time watching this stuff they’ll have to explain.

America’s political process at the federal, state and local levels is too corrupted to fix – a money-controlled one-party system with two wings, a democracy in name only.

Names and faces change. Business as usual triumphs every time. A rogue’s gallery of miscreants compete for high office – not an anti-war, true populist, real democrat in the bunch, none allowed to compete.

Washington’s criminal class is bipartisan. Each new administration and Congress are worse than previous ones. Democrats are indistinguishable from Republicans. Rhetoric alone differs, not policies.

Monied interests are served exclusively, no matter who holds high office. Popular needs are increasingly neglected. Poverty is a growth industry, unemployment at Depression era levels.

Phony data conceal reality. The business of America (supported by all duopoly party candidates) is endless wars of aggression, corporate favoritism, taking from the poor and disappearing middle class for the rich, and cracking down hard on nonbelievers.

Every Republican and Democrat candidate supports this ugliness. Don’t let their demagogic bluster deceive you. They’re all cut from the same dirty cloth. They wouldn’t be allowed to run for high office otherwise.

Tuesday’s staged event was moderated by Clinton fundraiser/former Clinton Global Initiative member/CNN host Anderson Cooper, impartiality very much not his long suit.

Five Democrat aspirants read their pre-scripted lines, Clinton and Bernie Sanders the only two that matter.

The others showed up as potted plants – to make the nominating race look like more than a two-person show – or three if Joe Biden jumps in as some expect because Clinton looks increasingly like damaged goods.

Her slumping poll numbers show it – in the low-to-mid 40s, down from 63% in July, still way ahead of Sanders. Both are polar opposite the leadership any country deserves.

They’re self-serving opportunists, pro-war, pro-monied interests, pretending to care about ordinary people. Their government service shows otherwise.

Ignore what political aspirants say. Assess only what they do. Judge them solely on their records. All duopoly party members are automatically unqualified for public office. Rare exceptions like Cynthia McKinney prove the rule.

Candidates are allowed to seek high office and participate in hyped events like on Tuesday night because they’re card-carrying dirty politics members – fronting for monied interests running America, vetted to serve their them if elected, playing the same old ugly game while pretending otherwise.

When Sanders rants about “tak(ing) back our government from a handful of billionaires and creat(ing) (a) vibrant democracy,” he’s lying.

He’s no more “democratic socialist” than Bill Clinton or Obama. His voting record belies his disingenuous rhetorical opposition to “capitalist…greed and recklessness…”

When Clinton says “we’re going to make the tax system a fairer one,” she’s concealing her exclusive support for wealth, power and privilege.

Claiming “I have always fought for the same (high-minded) values and principles” conceals her consistent pro-war, pro-business record – as first lady, New York senator and secretary of state.

When she claims “I’m a progressive. (I)t’s our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism,” she’s lying. Her dark record gives her away.

Americans won’t ever get governance serving everyone equitably and fairly by voting. Not when the system is rigged to serve monied interests exclusively.

The only solution is nonviolent revolution from the grassroots. America’s top down system works only for its privileged few alone – no one else.