Healthy debate - it's Jewish!

I believe that Jews have NOT contributed enough to our political process. What we really need is a couple of Talmudically influenced rabbis running the upcoming debates between the candidates.

Why?

Simple - in the Talmud, the text by which all Judaism since has truly been shaped - the method of argument is absolutely thorough, as well as direct and simple. Question? Options for answers, explanations for why some answers work and others don't, discussion of the best of the answers, conclusion - leaving open the possibility that some of the discarded answers may be useful in the future.

Our culture's completion of the move towards sound-bites and simple answers to complex problems has left us with no political party or candidate offering a comprehensive vision for the purpose of government itself. Until we make some real attempts at answering that question we will me stuck in the current quagmire of the American political system.

How does Judaism answer this question? Quite simply - Jews have always been concerned with first and foremost taking care of necessities. So, Jewish governance has been about taking care of national and civic defense, and then taking care of those who can least take care of themselves. Throw in a little emphasis on recognizing that the earth is not ours and that we are responsible for being good stewards and you have what I would consider a Jewishly informed public policy.

If we could accomplish these three things with any degree of reliability, our government might be headed in a direction that would do some good, as well as be informed by pretty sound Jewish values. On top of which, most of us, conservative or liberal, could actually agree that these are worthwhile values to pursue.