A number of my friends and acquaintances had the wisdom to skip the first—and perhaps the last—presidential debate of this election cycle. Those of us who sat down, strapped in, and turned on the television saw, immediately, that the debate functioned as just another day at the Liar’s Club for Donald Trump, and an unmitigated disaster for Joe Biden.
While it is clear that Donald Trump is hardly in peak physical condition, he presented with exponentially more strength and vitality than did Biden. It is also true that he devoted every drop of that vitality to doing what he does best: dodging accountability and lying his head off.
Conversely, Biden told the truth. He told it haltingly and feebly, but he told the truth. At the same time, he seemed confused. Fact-finding problems were obvious, he was slack-jawed, and several times he appeared to be uncertain of what he was trying to say.
In other words, the debate taught us nothing and changed nothing. We all knew that Biden was frail and forgetful long before the debate. We all knew that Trump was a scheming, pathological liar long before the debate. They both performed, in worst-case-scenario terms, exactly as one might have predicted.
How do you choose between a life-long liar who has already taken a sledgehammer to our democracy and stacked the courts with far-right, theocratic zealots, and an enfeebled incumbent who presents as frail and confused?
It seems to me that the pathological liar should be fact-checked in real time every time he opens his mouth, lest his incessant repetition of pure, unadulterated nonsense leads to the further hoodwinking of half the electorate.
It also seems to me that Joe Biden needs to fire his campaign staff, all of them, immediately. These are people who know him and know him well. This was not their first rodeo, yet they allowed their candidate to go on national TV, fall off his horse, and get trampled.
Had Joe Biden been sharper and more lucid, he would have been able to counter every one of Donald Trump’s ridiculous assertions. For example, when Donald Trump said that we should get out of Ukraine because, after all, there is an entire ocean that insulates us from conflict in Europe, a sharper Biden would have countered, “I don’t know where you studied warfare, but an ocean protects no one. There are things called aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines and fighter jets and satellites and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Atlantic Ocean defeats none of them, just as the Pacific Ocean did not protect us from Japan in 1944.”
Trump said that the “illegals,” whom he seems to think have all escaped from South American prisons and mental institutions, are taking “Hispanic jobs and Black jobs.”
A sharper Biden would have been able to say, “First, that’s a lie. The vast majority of migrants just seek safety and an opportunity to work hard and have a better life. There is no evidence that migrants are criminals and mental patients, and no evidence that they are stealing anyone’s job. Moreover, I’d like to know what Mr. Trump considers ‘Hispanic jobs’ and ‘Black jobs.’ Given that he has identified the majority of migrants as mentally defective or career criminals, it seems that he thinks Black and Hispanic citizens are also mentally defective career criminals whose menial jobs are being siphoned away by refugees. This is not just an outright lie; it is proof of Trump’s racism.”
Biden attempted to rehabilitate himself the following day at a campaign event in South Carolina. He rightly acknowledged his own age-related challenges, while delivering a strong campaign speech. But he relied on teleprompters and did not veer into the extemporaneous. Moreover, it did nothing to allay fears that he is just too frail to continue.
For the moment, neither candidate appears to be bowing out of the race. Donald Trump will soldier on, because in spite of the preposterous Supreme Court ruling that essentially gives chief executives blanket immunity for crimes committed in office, he knows that he will be tried and convicted of multiple felonies if he cannot cloak himself, again, in the presidency. And now that he has apparently been authorized by Clarence Thomas and the Supremes to commit all manner of crimes if he holds the highest office in the land, expect him to do exactly that if reelected. He has a record of previous criminality to run on.
Conversely, there is no evidence that Joe Biden has ever committed a crime. There is ample evidence that he has given his heart, his soul, and his life to public service. Sadly, there also seems to be ample evidence of his physical and cognitive decline. If reelected, he will need to surround himself with smart, experienced, energetic, and principled staff who can help him thread his way through difficult decisions.
Unless Joe Biden steps aside or Donald Trump asphyxiates on a Big Mac, we will need to choose between them in November of this year. All we can try to do is choose the least bad president for our country, the candidate who will do the least harm. We will hold our noses, vote, and hope for better days ahead.
I have already stated that I wouldn’t vote for Donald Trump if it were my last day on Earth, and I meant it. Trump is so toxic, so amoral, so narcissistic, and so self-dealing that I believe American democracy will collapse under a second Trump administration. Thanks to Leonard Leo, Harlan Crow, the Heritage Foundation, and the Supremes, we are now on the precipice of a Christian nationalist autocracy. If you don’t believe me, check into Project 2025, a dystopian vision for the future created by the Heritage Foundation with guidance from Hungarian dictator Viktor Orban.
Come hell or high water, I will vote for Biden if Biden remains the Democratic nominee. If he steps aside and there is a different nominee, I will vote for whomever that may be. Frankly, I would vote for a bucket of sludge before I would vote for Donald Trump, who has been rated by 140 prominent historians as the worst president in United States history.
So for now, in spite of my sense of angst and foreboding, Uncle Joe still has my vote.
