When I first came to college, I found it tough to keep up with the news. Living in the dorms, the last thing I wanted to do was spend an hour or two watching television keeping up with events that weren't affecting me.

There's been a change, though. Something strange happened these past few years, months, or weeks. Now, my roommates and I watch television about events that won't affect us -- intently. We've been watching the presidential debates and watched the vice presidential debate in the hope to glean some information on policy from the candidates. After all, these past two were supposedly covering domestic and foreign policy general questions, right?

Now, typically a presidential debate would have a lot of weight on the populace. Typically, the events the candidates talked about (or rather, pandered about) covered issues shallowly and one could gain a general perspective of each's viewpoint. Unfortunately, the sad truth is, I would've felt stronger about the candidates having not watched the debates.

I grow weary of the warnings I hear from friends of "don't vote for ______, they'll be the end!" I don't have any voting advice to offer you, it's not my place. However, I will say that your television is not your friend anymore.

I grow weary of the campaign managers talking about how their candidate owned the debate floor. I grow weary of the candidates talking about their misrepresentation at the debates, and the rigged process they endure to make a presidential bid. Mostly, I grow weary of a disrespect for discourse.

If you needed any proof why language and history classes are requirements to graduate, these debates were a demonstration for you. Abstracted from the basic (and now dead and gone) practice of answering the question that was asked, there was a real problem this week. One of the two people in the debate is the presumptive leader of the most powerful nation in the world, and they couldn't get through 10 minutes without having to speak over the other.

Compounded on top of this, the moderators and the media pursued no truths this week. In the interviews with the candidates after the debate, no real questions were asked and no answers were given. It's better for ratings if they have their affiliated candidate on air and asked questions about "what was going through your mind when ______ statement was made?"

I find it detestable. Here we are, less than a month away from election and the best memories from the debates have been zingers and redirections of each question.

Coming full circle, the point I'm trying to make is that the people tasked with articulating thoughts of others have not done their job. Furthermore, those coming into their jobs behind them are also semi-concerned with page views over content (as many companies are).

The quality of the debates, I feel, is in direct correlation to the premium the public places on education standards. The lack of real intellectual challenge and articulation of such is apparent these past few weeks but is symptomatic of less structure in education over time.

No, I won't give you any voting advice, but I do have some political advice. In a democracy, we are tasked with making the rules that are the best for most people and doing it together. It's pretty apparent what happens when people start voting for their own interests (lobbying, gerrymandering, and mostly every inefficiency in civics), and painfully apparent for future generations. This next month, understand the candidate you vote for will probably not be ideal. This give and take of things you like versus not is exactly the calculation you should be doing, but this time, think of your American people.

This year's election will have a lot of impacts for decades, as our country is reaching a tipping point on energy, economics, and healthcare. Not to mention a needed overhaul on the defense, research, and education budgets.

Whatever decisions are made will have long-echoing repurcussions. I'm not going to say think of the children, but honestly, if the media keeps going on witch hunts for scandals and not policy information... we might want to consider making TMZ the national news channel. Because at least then I could fall asleep ignorant to the real work needing to be done around me.