The debates are over. Unfortunately, the issues were never “debated.” Donald Trump remains the bad guy since he is easy to be that. Hillary Clinton remains the good guy because she is a little bit smarter than he is.

He tried to explain what it is like for a guy to touch, or desire to touch, a breast or a butt — which was a mistake, one of the many.

She denied what it is like to be publicly ridiculed by the guy who supposedly loved her. We all enabled the denial. The lack of mutual respect remains lost as the culprit, never even mentioned by the pundits and “analysts.”

The issues remain untouched. Aleppo remains as it is defined in the Arabian nights. A “no-fly zone” over that city remains misunderstood by most voters.

The fact that Americans cannot progress as a culture unless we find a way to ensure that everyone has what Charlotte Towle says we need in “Common Human Needs,” is lost in the din.

Maine continues to hobble along as a backwater, as opposed to using the state’s vast resources and wonderful people to create the jobs everyone promises.

So it goes.

James Tierney, Brunswick