Tom’s Tidbits

The Debate was a disaster, but we can still learn from it

Greetings,

If you’re like me, you’re still slack-jawed at the desecration of human dignity, democratic principles, rational thought, and the vacuum of vision on display in the first Trump/Biden debate. It’s been described as ‘a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck‘, and ‘two elderly white men mud wrestling’. I saw it as an addled grandfather yelling at a petulant child. If Jefferson was right that “a well-informed electorate is a prerequisite for Democracy”, then what happens if the electorate is NOT well-informed? What about when they’re actively and effectively MIS-informed? Whatever our final decisions, we need information to make them and this debate could have been a forum to critically examine competing philosophies… it obviously wasn’t. The candidates said little of value, so we’re left to forge our understanding from how they said it and what they didn’t say.

Far from being a showman, Donald Trump was utterly unsurprising. Supporters or not, people understood Trump to be a grifter and bully, but he was a grifter and bully that delivered. He talked over his opponent constantly? Well of course! He couldn’t articulate a single coherent idea? Did we expect one? He lied? Who cares! He pwned the Libs, and that’s all his base wanted. Pathetic.

Biden had some success by putting to rest the absurd BS from the Righty sludge pump about doddering senility, performance enhancing drugs, and electronic ear pieces. But toward the end of the ‘debate’ I thought he seemed tired, and the fire of his ideas was fading if it was ever there. I guess that’s understandable after an hour on the receiving end of ghastly taunts and playground insults; he may have performed better if he was exchanging ideas with a lucid opponent. He was better than Trump by comparison, but that’s a low bar.

Both candidates had talking points they needed to get in, but neither articulated any type of overarching framework that would stitch the points together. NEITHER expressed coherent ideas. Trump’s mythical Health Care plan came up, and though no one believes it exists, it was an opportunity for him to make up something about how such a plan could, should, or would work. He had the opportunity, but didn’t fill in the blanks. Or consider Biden’s Green New Deal response… he said it “wasn’t his plan”, but what did he mean? A policy to support Green tech and build new jobs based on the investment makes sense; how and why does Biden’s plan, if any, differ from Green New Deal? For both Biden and Trump, we’re left to wonder, make up our own answers, or go fishing on a website for guidance when the whole point of a debate is to answer questions just like these.

If we look to the silences of the night for knowledge, then Trump was the clear winner. Nothing screamed louder than his deafening silence when offered the chance, repeatedly, to denounce violent right wing extremists. “Stand back and stand by”. From an American president. There are no words. But I think there’s all too much to learn.

It’s not partisan to say we’re at a critical juncture in history. At home, the system built over the last 50 years is cracking as its failures to address economic and social pressures are finally coming to a head. Abroad, international agreements designed to constrain warmongers and solve global problems are proving useless as authoritarians expand power and climate change runs unchecked. Only the delusional see the current system continuing. It WILL change, the direction of change is the only question and it’s not one for our ‘leaders’ to answer. It’s a question for us. We need, and certainly deserve, much better information to answer it.

Make a great day,