The Presidential Debate: We All Lost
One of my favorite events that rolls around every four years is when our incumbent president goes toe-to-toe with a challenger during a presidential debate. We saw that yesterday evening when President Joe Biden took on former President Donald Trump. I personally was excited to watch this disaster unfold strictly for the memes and laughs. The entire fiasco went about as well as I figured it would. In summary, our choices for president include a tired grandpa who should’ve retired a long time ago and a narcissist who spews racism, sexism, homophobia as well as a touch of fascism every now and then. When the fiasco ended, CNN commentators immediately began discussing kicking Joe Biden off the ticket and replacing him with someone else.
I walked away after 90 minutes of agony thinking the debate went as well as I figured it would be. Biden is known for gaffes, but what we witnessed last night was something else entirely. We witnessed an elderly man whose mind is clearly quite diminished due to the wear and tear of life, not his fault by any means. What is Biden’s fault, however, is his inability to call it quits when the timing is right. One of the most irritating things about individuals in positions of power is the fact some of them never know when to call it quits. We saw it with Mitch McConnel, we saw it with Dianne Feinstein and we even see it quite often with athletes in professional sports. Biden should’ve stepped aside after one term and handed the reigns over to someone else, whoever that may be. We are in a curious predicament as a country due to the age of both Biden and Trump, but also because the rise of the far-right and their bizarre stranglehold on American politics currently. In summary, the times we are living in are certainly weird and dumb, in my professional opinion.
Some would say this is certainly elder abuse at this point.
Despite all the weird feelings many of us have about Biden after yesterday evening’s debate performance, his performance should not surprise us. Biden’s mental capacity had been declining for quite a while, despite what the Democratic Party wanted everyone to believe. Biden did about as well as he could’ve done but I certainly don’t think he won the debate. Trump ranted and raved about nonsense and Biden was coherent enough at times to call him out on his lies. I’d surmise that everyone involved in that entire debate lost something last night. CNN lost credibility for their inability to fact check anything and making the entire night revolve around Biden’s age and mental decline. Biden lost because he was unable to coherently string together enough of his talking points. Trump lost because he spent 90 minutes spewing hatred towards others. We as Americans lost because we are stuck in a 2-party system that has presented us with two elderly men who have their own unique mental failings. This was an embarrassing night for the United States, plain and simple.
Regardless, we are stuck on this path. People can talk all they want about replacing Joe Biden at the convention, but the likelihood of that happening is very low as explained by the Tweets below:
Go Follow Andrew Tobias on Twitter if you aren’t already.
If you’re feeling a little wary about voting for Joe Biden, just think of the alternative. During Trump’s first presidency we saw him dismantle Roe v. Wade and stack the Supreme Court with conservative justices. We saw what happened on January 6th where his most fervent supporters launched an attack on the US Capitol building attempting to have our nation’s first ever coup. For those feeling queasy with Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, just remember this is about more than just one man. We are voting for an entire administration of people. It’s pretty obvious that a team of people, most likely including Biden’s wife, are making all the decisions for him. I’ll look past the man at the top of the ticket and vote for his administration happily, despite Biden’s age and mental failings. And this isn’t even the first time a wife of a president has been in the shadows actually running the government. We saw it with FDR who had polio and we saw it with Ronald Reagan who had Alzheimer’s and those are just the times I can think of off the top of my head. To be frank, this is not our nation’s first case of a president showing signs of poor health and mental abilities. So, my advice to everyone is stick to the plan. Man-up and vote for a sleepy grandpa who probably has pretty good intentions instead of voting for a demagogue who wants to turn back the clock on the United States and undo and progress and change we’ve achieved in the last four years. Think back to 2020 and ask yourself: am I better off now than in 2020? I suspect the answer would be yes.