I have reached the conclusion that I must be a glutton for punishment. For several months now, I have more often than not been unable to get a good night’s sleep for extended periods of time and I have finally figured out why. It is because I have been spending too much time watching the presidential candidate’s so-called “debates” on television. Last night, March 3, 2016, I watched the GOP candidates “debate” in Detroit and as I was watching I said to my wife, “I’ve seen this show before.” Obviously it was not a rerun of a previous “debate,” but it might just as well have been. But my wife and I both agreed that there is absolutely nothing new and newsworthy that is coming out of these “debates.”

You will note that I have placed the words debate and/or debates in quotation marks. Those quotation marks are intended marks of sarcasm. For as long as these so-called “debates” have been going on during this pre-election season, I have yet to see a real debate. Does anyone even know the meaning of the word anymore? And with each new “debate” they become progressively less debate-like. At this stage of the political game, a debate should be a civil discussion between Party candidates, before their constituents, which will then allow the electorate to make an educated judgment as to whom among them should be the Party’s nominee. The television news networks have simply found a new way of presenting another hated reality show. Or perhaps one could say they are nothing more than a verbal rendition of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on steroids. Well, I guess I’m showing my age inasmuch as I understand it is now the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.), but who really cares what it is called, it is just a fake piece of crap that is far from entertaining and, I believe, is destructive to our national culture. Sadly, these “debates” have devolved into the same kind of cesspool.

To be fair, I must admit that I have watched none of the “debates” that the Democrat Party is promoting. I don’t have to watch those clowns to know that I won’t be voting for either of the two socialists that are vying to be the Chief Comrade. I’m just ashamed that the American citizenry has denigrated itself to the point that it is even considering voting another socialist into the Office of the President of the United States, not to mention the fact that either of those two socialists have a darn good chance of getting elected. What in the world has happened to this nation? On second thought, I suppose the answer to that question is contained in the question itself. This once great nation has gone the way of “the world.” It can no longer be denied, the end of civilization is near and Jesus is saddling up.

The primary thing on my mind last night as I attempted to get some sleep was how we, the nation, got to this point in its history where everything our Founding Fathers had put into place has been all but destroyed. As much as I dislike the job President Obama has done, I will not cast all the blame on him. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned in previous commentaries, the destruction began long before Obama came along. He and his followers just happen to be the ones who have put the pedal to the metal.

I have witnessed, and people of my generation have been a part of, the gradual destruction of our constitutional form of government. I am now 72 years of age after being born in February 1944. In hindsight, I think I have seen the destruction in its entirety. I grew up, for the most part, on a dryland farm/ranch in southeastern Montana. My grandfather owned the place and he and two of his sons, my dad and one of his brothers, worked their tails off to make a decent living. As far as I was concerned, I thought we were living the good life. And we actually were living well in the late ‘40s and '50s even though my family and my uncle’s family were really nothing more than sharecroppers on Grandad’s farm. I did not know that there were others who were probably better off than we were and no one seemed to care about that sort of thing. I was also aware of the fact that there were a lot of people who weren’t as fortunate as us. But, as I tried to say, there was no concern about that sort of thing. Everybody, rich and poor alike, helped each other get their crops in and harvested and their cattle and livestock raised and taken to market. We were a community of proud Americans and that “community” covered the entire state of Montana.

Then came the 1960s and, for whatever reason, everything started going to hell in a hand basket. It seemed as if all of a sudden people started tagging themselves as some form of hyphenated American. That was the beginning of the end and the “united” states started becoming divided by race, religion, creed, education or lack thereof, and personal wealth, profession, etc., etc. Even the two major political parties began casting disparities at one another much more than ever before. The race problem was a major thorn in America’s side, but thanks to the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr., there was a major healing in that regard. Dr. King must be spinning in his grave today because everything he did has now been obliterated. Race relations are worse now than they had ever been during Dr. King’s struggle. However, that is another subject in and of its self and may be addressed at a later date.

I am quickly running out of the allotted number of words I can use in one of these commentaries, so I’ll leave it at that. The bottom line, again, is that the United States of America, and, in fact, the entire world, had better pull their collective heads out of the sand and attempt to get themselves back to being a civilized people because Jesus is saddling up.