Reaction to Presidential Debate, the "Other" News and a MLK Quote

The Debate

The afternoon of the Presidential Debate, I sent an email bulletin to one of the several Email mailing lists I maintain which concluded with the following, “And if you are one of those who has not yet made up their mind, listen carefully as to how the candidates enumerate the problems our nation faces and their ideas as to how to realistically address them.  Pay no attention to emotional appeals.  Act on facts.”  I had thought they would be exposed to something close to a normal “debate.”  How naively optimistic I was.

Trump Scowling Between Lies

I had never expected the debate to deteriorate into the brawl it turned out to be because of the boorishness of the person who carries, and daily disgraces, the title of President of the United States.  Totally incompetent in his role as President, Trump proved to be equally incompetent in addressing his opponent (and the millions of viewers), a quite different matter than his speaking before one of his gullible and ignorant mobs of supporters.  More and more he resembles cult leader Jim Jones who led hundreds to their deaths by poisoned Kool-Aid forty years ago, only this time the death will involve the Republican Party.

Ignoring (and sometimes insulting) the moderator and the rules both Parties had agreed to, Trump interrupted whenever he chose to, insulted his opponent and his family, and lied his way through the ninety-minute ordeal.  I think Biden would be justified in dropping out of future debates with a man who is no more than a schoolyard bully or thug at best.

Putting that aside, it is clear that Trump has given up on winning the election, both from a popular and electoral college standpoint.  His performance was not intended to win or change anyone’s votes. In fact, I suspect polls will show it cost him votes.  All he was interested in doing was solidifying his base, a considerable 40% of the electorate.  Even in losing, that number is something with which to be reckoned.  But more about that later.

Clearly, Trump’s aim is to challenge the results of an election he cannot win as fraudulent and litigate them up to the Supreme Court.  That is why he is frantically attempting to get his nominee, or another nominee if she fails to win Senate approval, on the Court giving him a majority, able to overthrow the election results.  That’s the only way he can stay in the White House.

To do this, he needs a majority vote in the Senate.  There just may be enough integrity left in that body, particularly after seeing what they saw and heard in the debate, to keep defeating his nominees until he gives up and accepts the election results. He might acquiesce to such a deal if it kept him from prosecution once he is out of office.  But don’t count on that happening.    It might just be wishful thinking on my part.

Last week’s New Yorker magazine (9-28 issue) included a lengthy article by lawyer Jeffrey Toobin which was subtitled “How Trump’s forces could challenge the election results and turn the country into a battleground.”  Toward the end of the article, Toobin wrote that “It’s unsurprising that, when the Transition Integrity Project, a group of a hundred bipartisan experts, ran a series of simulations, they concluded that ‘the potential for violent conflict is high, particularly since Trump encourages his supporters to take up arms.’ ”  He also wrote, after discussing Trump’s sympathy for anti-Black Lives Matter counter-protesters, that “anything short of a landslide for either Biden or Trump could lead to chaos.”  This will not end well.

 

The Other News

In response to someone posting on Heather Cox Richardson’s daily “Letter from an American,” raising the question of how the continuing West coast wildfires have dropped out of the spotlight, I added the following comment:

“Good point, about the wildfires. I wonder, if the news were not dominated by the election, the Supreme Court, Covid19 and the President's financial picture, what would be the front page stories.

You know, they haven't gone away: the "war' between Russia and Ukraine, ISIS, the Taliban and Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian impass, nuclear weapons in North Korea and eventually in Iran, rising dictatorships in Europe, the Khashoggi murder, unsolved problems caused by poverty the world over, deterioration of public school education in the U.S. and changes becoming necessary due to climate change. Oh, and there's more, which don't make page one because space is needed to report that a Trump aide cracked up. And speaking of "page one," we can't ignore the continuing decline of newspaper and other print media as disseminators of news and opinion. That's a problem that doesn't get enough attention either.”

Words to Reflect Upon 

Mary Sanchez, in a recent Kansas City Star column, quoted Martin Luther King as follows”

“One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change.  Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions.  Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”

King spoke these words just a few months before his assassination 51 years ago.  They are just as pertinent today.

JL

Hey, I'm still lurking around!