There is a Presidential debate tonight on CNN and none of us are obligated to watch.
Considering what happened during the previous election cycle - involving the same two candidates - when donald trump attempted to violate every norm and civility in the most crass manner, I'm not about to expect him to improve his behavior. Even with the supposed safeguards in place for this televised spectacle - the moderator can cut off microphones this time - we're going to get trump gaslighting - there are no fact-checkers at this debate - and bullying his way through another night of pandering towards his own base.
It's not helping any that trump's Republican allies and spokespeople have been running around the last week or so accusing President Biden of being drugged up on "smart" or "debate enhancement drugs" and demanding drug tests on Biden as a means to embarrass him (and provide cover for trump if he underwhelms/collapses during the event).
After all, if there were such a "performance enhancing drug" to improve your mental acuity, trump's own people would be injecting it into trump the last six months or so to hide the growing public signs that he's suffering dementia and cognitive failure.
This is all performative circus, designed to stir up fervor for the mainstream media outlets to cover the horserace nature of campaigns and fill their own narratives. The partisan landscape dividing the Republican and Democratic voting bases are already decided (since 2020!): the Undecided voters at this point tend to be tuned out anyway, and won't pay attention until the last month or so (hence the constant attempts at October Surprises to undermine each other).
At best, we're going to see Biden pitch to the media that he's built back a strong economy generating more jobs at better wages, and punching at trump for being a convicted felon. trump's narrative is going to be that things were better under him, that the border security is in shambles, and making none-too-subtle threats for his Proud Boy supporters to "prep for another uprising".
The only thing worth watching for is if trump physically collapses from his own inability to stand upright as his neurology short circuits.
Me? I'm trying to get into this Martha Wells' Murderbot book series. Wish me luck.
1 comment:
I can't watch. All it would do is raise my blood pressure, and there will be no escaping it anyway, so I just don't. Haven't for years, and haven't missed anything. If Biden were to walk over and kick Fergus right in his nutsack, it would be running in a loop on every blog that I read, so missing it in real time would be no big deal. As for actually debating substantive issues, it ain't gonna happen. It's "no puppet, no puppet, you're the puppet" all of the way down.
I do hope that some of the folks who haven't been paying any attention as of yet get tuned in a little, though.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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