The Great Debate

JUST DESSERTS

The mainstream press, with some exceptions, is jumping on Biden for his poor performance in the debate, which he deserves. But if the press is concerned about just desserts what about Trump. Along with his lies, he made a number of verbal gaffs. If you babble incoherent nonsense and make up outrageous lies but do so loudly and forcefully, do you get a pass from the media? Did the reporters and commentators not notice? Or were they so convinced that Biden’s bumbling was the saleable story that they ignored Trump’s ludicrous performance? Where’s the fair and balanced news that the media brag about? Am I the only one who thought Trump’s performance was that of a deranged or a practiced con man? Or both? Am I the only one who thought Trump lied incessantly, while Biden, when he did manage to get a point across, was truthful? Am I the only one who rates mumbled and bumbled truthfulness higher that loud-mouthed lies?

FANTASY

Biden disappointed me and Trump appalled me, more the former than the latter because I expected more from Biden and got what I expected from Trump. I’ve seen his schtick far too many times and have a certain level of immunity. I could kick myself for wasting my time watching those two old farts talk about their golf game when I could have watched baseball. Or taken a refreshing nap. And Biden seems to be kicking himself, as well he should. Whenever I have an argument or dispute with someone, I spend far too many napless hours thinking of all the trenchant things I wish I had said and mentally kicking myself for not saying them. I would mentally kick Biden, but far too many people are verbally kicking him. As I watched Biden fumble a number of opportunities to rebut the lies, I thought of all the things I wished he had said. Here’s a partial list (so many lies, so little time):

TRUMP (paraphrased): Only a handful of people participated in what was a peaceful walkthrough of the Capitol on Jan 6 and they were ushered in by the Capitol police.

BIDEN: (laughing) Yeah, a peaceful walkthrough. Tell that whopper to the many Capitol police officers who bravely tried to defend the Capitol and were injured by the peaceful insurrectionists. Tell that to the police officers suing you for instigating the insurrection. Over a thousand of those peaceful tourists were convicted or pleaded guilty to crimes. Many more cases will follow. And you say they were ushered in by the police, HA! That’s a good one, even for a practiced liar like you. Millions of people saw on their TV screens the violent attacks on the police. Millions saw the police valiantly trying to defend the Capitol against overwhelming numbers of your peaceful tourists committing overwhelming numbers of violent acts. And now you’re telling the millions watching this debate that they didn’t see what they saw, what they can watch again, any time they want. That insurrection was televised for all the world to see, and yet you stand here and claim it didn’t happen that way. You have no shame, no moral or intellectual braking system that prevents you from telling your outrageous whoppers. The sad part is that your die-hard supporters will convince themselves to go along with this delusion.

TRUMP (paraphrased): It was Nancy Pelosi’s fault (the attack on the Capitol) because I offered to have ten thousand National Guards standing by, but Nancy rejected them. Nancy admitted that it was her fault because she rejected the troops that I offered.

BIDEN: What unmitigated bull pucky! Nancy, as speaker of the House, had nothing to do with the protection of the Capitol, nothing to do with accepting or rejecting your fantasy offer of ten thousand National Guards. Maybe in your deluded mind you think you made the offer. Or possibly you offered the ten thousand troopers to Nikki Haley. You do get her and Nancy mixed up. And Nikki had even less to do with the protection of the Capitol. And if you did offer ten thousand troopers to Nikki, it must have confused the hell out of her. She must have wondered what in the hell would she do with ten thousand troopers in South Carolina where she’s no longer governor. And as to Nancy or even Nikki admitting it was her fault because she rejected your very kind offer, this is either another of your outrageous lies or another example of you living in a fantasyland of your own, one more inventive than anything Disney studios could come up with. We can ask Nancy and Nikki, but when both say that they received no such offer and they admitted no such thing, you won’t care because you’ll have moved on to other lies and, you hope, the damage will already have been done. Your delusional followers will either continue to believe the lie or at least say they do or forgive it as just another example of good old Trump being Trump. Let’s make a deal. If Nancy says on live television that the insurrection was all her fault, then I’ll drop out of the race. If she denies saying it, then you drop out.

TRUMP (paraphrased and quoted): Biden and the Democrats are radical extremists because they “will take the life of a child in the eight month, the ninth month, and even after birth. After birth.”

BIDEN: Here we go again with another of your whoppers. Maybe you’ve gorged yourself on so many whoppers in your life that you can’t help vomiting up a few. This latest whopper is another dishonest creation of your sick mind. As far as killing babies after birth, I believe it’s called infanticide and is against the law in every state. You are correct, astoundingly, in that some abortions do take place in the eighth and ninth month, but those are only in cases of abnormalities that put the life of the mother or fetus at risk. But none occur after birth and it’s ridiculous to say so.

TRUMP (paraphrased): He’s killing people with his open borders. Other countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions and flooding our country with murderers and rapists causing a huge crime wave in our country.

BIDEN (looking into the camera): Don’t be fooled, folks. This is another example of Trump appealing to his Nazi and white supremacist supporters. There is not a shred of evidence to support this racist claim. No country is emptying its prisons and mental institutions. There is no crime wave caused by undocumented immigrants. In fact, numerous studies have shown that the crime rate among undocumented people is much lower than that of people born in the USA. While I don’t deny that we have a problem with the overwhelming numbers of immigrants at the southern border, at the same time we should recognized the humanity of those immigrants and realize that the vast majority have come fleeing violence or simply looking for better lives, just as all our immigrant ancestors did, just like all the people on the Mayflower. They are all human beings. I’m surprised you didn’t blame them for late term abortions and killing babies after birth.

TRUMP (paraphrased): I did not call those American servicemen in the French cemetery losers and I have 19 witnesses who have come forward to refute what that lying general said I said. And I fired him.

BIDEN: It is true that you shout a lot, as you’re doing tonight. I don’t know, maybe you have a hearing problem as well as a listening problem. Did you shout loud enough when talking to General Kelly, that 19 witnesses heard every word you said that day? Where did your deranged mind come up with the number 19? Is that number preying on your sick mind because you are one of 19 defendants in the Georgia election fraud case? Against your list of 19 imaginary witnesses, we have the word of a Major General in the US Army whom you appointed as your Chief of Staff. And, the fact is, you did not visit that cemetery. Why don’t you publish this list of 19 and we can check to see if they were always around you when you spoke with General Kelly. Next, I suppose you’ll lie and claim that you never trashed that American hero John McCain.  Or insulted Gold Star Families.

TRUMP (paraphrased and quoted): I gave Americans the largest tax cut ever. “We had the greatest economy in history.”

BIDEN: That tax cut was given mainly to billionaires and led to a nearly 8 trillion dollar increase in our national debt, which average Americans, the people who didn’t benefit from the tax cut, will spend the rest of their lives trying to pay off.

CLOSING STATEMENT

BIDEN: (looking into the camera) You know, folks, I get tired of this same old schtick. He rants and raves and tells the most outrageous lies that not even he can believe. If he does believe them then he’s living in a dangerous fantasy world. He makes up conversations with imaginary people that confirm his outrageous lies. He says he was the greatest president in our history and just about everyone told him so. Well, 154 historians recently rated all our Presidents, and they all, including conservative historians, ranked Trump near the bottom.  He brags that he had the respect of the leaders of every country in the world, a fact he knows because they all told him so. If the leader of Mexico respected him so much, why didn’t Mexico pay for the border wall as Trump had promised. He says he has the respect of the police everywhere. Everywhere he goes they tell him so. Tell that to the Capital Police who are suing him.

CONFESSION

I confess that I am Biden’s age. I’m slower than I used to be and sometimes grope for words. I don’t stammer, but I have a (service-related) hearing disability, which means I have to concentrate more than most in normal conversations, and I often slack off. Supporters claim that Biden simply had a bad day, that his poor performance was an episode, not a condition. I have episodes as well as a condition. But, like Biden, I’m not ready to retire. Like Biden I think I can still help people. Like I have to do, it’s up to Biden to show that he has more good days than bad. The 20- and 30-somethings in my office sometimes patronize me, but they also come to me for advice and to take advantage of some of the knowledge I couldn’t help but accumulate through the years.

I don’t mean to insinuate that my situation is just like Biden’s, but I do have an inkling, however infinitely small, of his situation. He may mumble and stammer and walk stiffly but he looks healthy. He may not be buff, but he’s trim. He bicycles for exercise. He does not try to hide his thinning white hair. I’m healthy. I’m certainly not buff and only sort of trim. I do bike to work. I have a good deal more thinning white hair than Biden. The media seems obsessed with Biden’s health. What about Trump’s? Trump does not look healthy and I cannot imagine him on a bicycle. Never. Ever. He’s the opposite of buff and trim. He’s obese and his facial skin is a non-human color and his bleached comb-over calls reveals his hidden baldness when the wind blows. Is this body-shaming? Ask Trump. He wrote the book. The White House doctor who gave Trump a glowing health report in 2018 and recently gave him a cognition test which Trump claims to have passed with flying colors had to withdraw from the nomination to head the VA because of allegations of a drinking problem and improper opioid prescriptions. Is he to be trusted?

And let’s clear up a common misconception about power and the powerful. In our patriarchal society Presidents get the credit or the blame for everything that happens on their watch. The reality is that they cannot and do not do everything. They delegate. They surround themselves with people who advise them, warn them when an idea is bad and, when it’s good, help them execute it. Biden seems to have surrounded himself with good, intelligent people who want to do the right thing for the county. Trump promises to surround himself with enablers and yes men, as well as a few blonde women, who will do whatever he says, no matter how deranged or delusional.

Our choice couldn’t be clearer.