Why Are Veterans Not An Issue in the Debates?

Veterans aren't an issue because NO issues have really been addressed in the debates between the GOP and Democrats. I only watched about ten minutes of the last debate because it appeared to be an act in a political circus. The moderators were not asking the right questions, so Trump and Hillary just engaged in a lot of mud slinging and name-calling. Neither has put forth any kind of substantive platform. Trump says he will "make America great again," but he doesn't address how he intends to do that except to limit immigration by "building a wall" between the US and Mexico. Hillary just attacks Trump's political qualifications or more accurately, his lack of any.

Because of Trump's history with "The Apprentice," he appears to be running on his celebrity, trusting that Americans will vote for him because of his success in Reality TV. This is a sad statement about what the political establishment thinks of Millennials. It makes me wonder how first- and second-time voters will decide their votes when they are bombarded with nitpicky ads that contain no real substance.

The top issues seem to be race relations; immigration; healthcare, specifically the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare); and education, Common Core v. Back to Basics curricula. Veterans' issues are somewhere in the top ten, but even with a huge lobby in DC, they are being overshadowed by other things. The candidates who have put forth platforms that address some or all of these issues are Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. At least, they are talking about their platforms and not engaging in name-calling or mud slinging.

In the past, voting for a third-party candidate meant that an individual was throwing his/her vote away. I don't think that will happen in this election. The major party candidates are a businessman who is running on his celebrity and a career politician who knows how to play the game, but mishandled government information and got caught. Neither has a definite platform. I hope and pray that Millennial voters do their research and a third-party candidate with a substantive platform gets elected by plurality.

You obviously have not watched the debates. Trump has made an issue of Vets and care for Vets at every debate and event.

As for the mainstream communist/statist/progressive media and the Demagogue Party - their opinion is that the only good vet is a dead vet - they despise the military and those of us who have served, and consider us a threat to their effort to take over the country and destroy the Constitution. EVERY politician and/or operative of the Demagogue Party must be defeated and permanently removed from office, their appointees and acolytes in the federal bureaucracy must be rooted out and removed, the federal bureaucracy must be cut down to the bare bones needed to fulfill the enumerated powers and limited scope granted to it by the Constitution, only Congress must make all laws so every regulation and rule promulgated by the federal bureaucracy (executive branch) must be eliminated as unConstitutional, and the anti-American Demagogue Party and so-called Progressives must be banned as the subversive traitors they are.

Based upon the evidence at hand (and there is quite a lot of it), Obama and the Clinton's are TRAITORS to the US Constitution, the nation and the People. They must be prosecuted for their crimes.

In my honest opinion, the only voice I've heard in helping veterans is coming from Trump. We all know what Clinton thinks of us. Are they speaking enough, know, there is more talk about refugees, illegal immigration, healthcare for both. I'm sorry, I won't spend on minute thinking about either of those groups in a beneficial way. I'm all for the veteran and active duty members.

I would argue that Veterans are an important topic, so much so that they have their own debate to discuss Veterans issues specifically. Veterans are certainly not a center point of an election, which could be attributed to many different things.

1. Veterans are a large community but not large enough for a center point issue.
2. The issue just isn't relatable enough to the general American population.
3. Sadly, people grow tired of hearing about Veteran issues and would rather just pretend they don't exist.

There are obviously many different reasons for why these issues aren't discussed more often but these are the reasons I see most often.

This situation is so similar to a lot of Government issues.
It takes something major to get their attention. Other than election time its business as usual until there is a scandal. Like the phony wait lists, Vets dying waiting for treatment. This get the peoples attention, then it gets the Politicians attention. But there is rarely any follow up.
It would be different if it were 1970 or so when almost every adult male had served, but now it's only about 2%, so after the "guilt" of the majority is made to feel good, by a few speeches and a bill that might be introduced (but not passed), we are back to square one.
It's too bad that military service is not mandatory for elected leadership, then they would have a better understanding and be more inclined to do some good.

Our's is not to question why, our's is but to do or die.

Some of the Republican candidates address the issue regularly. The debate moderators generally don't bring the issue up.

You can completely forget about any help from the Demagogue party candidates. They don't believe in the military, see veterans as threats to the order that they want to establish, and dominate the existing bureaucracy which promotes the skimming of resources away from the people who need and deserve them to fatten the privileged bureaucratic class. So far as I am concerned, they are conducting a direct assault on US! We need to stand up and end it.

I don't care for most of the Republicans (at least there are a few that represent our interests and wish to serve the Constitution and the People), but, so far as I can see, all of the Demagogues are traitors to the Constitution and the People. Let's start by voting all of them out of office. Then, we can concentrate on the Republicans and, if necessary, put together a new 'party' that will have the interests of the Constitution and the People at heart!

Rather than being allowed to serve themselves at our expense, the political and bureaucratic class must be made to serve US! The federal government must be shrunk down to strictly Enumerated Constitutional Powers.

It's because politicians really don't care about us. They'll shake hands and smile as we're fighting their wars, but once we are done they forget we exist.

Have any of you looked at the 2016/2017 VA budget submissions? I will take action over words any time. What needs to be addressed is the lack of accountability within the VA System. Financially and on a personnel basis. Corruption is rampant as the VAOIG indicates regularly in its reports and mismanagement happens more than we want to realize. What is it that you want debated, as far as the VA?

http://www.va.gov/budget/docs/summary/fy2017-VAsBudgetPressRelease.pdf

Most of you guys are right about the politicians are not talking about us veterans so much. But, Donald Trump talks about us all the time. He promises he will make sure we are taken care of. He has always been big on veteran issues and recently collected over 6 million dollars for the wounded warriors. This is only one of many reasons he will get my vote. He is not one of them, He is one of us, at heart.