Voters have watched two more debates from the major parties and countless promises of what would make America great or how the individual candidate would tackle the problems facing America. In the final analysis, none of these promises really matter, as neither side's platform from the executive side could ever make it through such a sharply divided Congress as we have today.
Sure, the Republicans face as tough (possibly tougher) congressional map as the Democrats faced in 2014, but neither side is going to gain the all powerful ability to control Senate cloture.
Only three things really matter for the next four years from the presidency: which judges (or at least type of judges) they will nominate to the federal courts, how they will use the executive order to advance their platform, and which legislation they would emphatically veto.All other issues have just been a dog and pony show, one that is quickly losing its entertainment value.
From the Republican side, the candidates need to focus on the fractures and vote defections within the party that have allowed the current administration to advance significant parts of its agenda, and stop fooling themselves into believing that the executive order is solely to blame.
The Democrats need to fully impress upon their constituents the nominating power of the federal courts, and stop wooing voters with fanciful goodies that would never make it through Congress.
And both sides need to fully accept the fact that modern gridlock is here to stay unless candidates can bend from the polarized party platforms.
But of the three things that matter, the federal court nominations are by far the most important.
It seems that every single major piece of legislation has to work its way through the federal courts to ultimately be decided at the SCOTUS.
Whichever side wins will dominate legislation, via the all powerful final word of the SCOTUS, through the nominating power of the president.
The unpredictable 5-4 nature of the current SCOTUS is fully up for grabs in 2016. With 4 of the 9 justices being born in the 1930s, common sense dictates a significant chance of openings.
So in 2016, how about all the candidates just start focusing on informing the voters of their ideas of modeling the federal courts; at least it would give the voters an honest insight into the legacy of the next presidency.