Due to the general craziness of my home life with a toddler & infant in the mix, I haven't posted in awhile. After the sad, sorry spectacle that was the first Biden / Trump Presidential Debate of 2024, my younger self would have posted about that immediately. Like so many people, my wife & I watched in shock about how absolutely befuddled the President of the United States looked. We know Biden's pretty old & as my wife says, "He should be home, being a Pop-Pop." Once the debate started, though, we were like... holy shit, dude. Over the past weeks, I've been kind of absorbing the craziness of it, & observing the fallout. I've always commented about politics here, so I felt like I had to write about this.
It was definitely painful to watch, especially as one of the many who see Donald Trump as an existential (yes, exi-fucking-stential) threat to democracy & its institutions, not just in America, but around the globe. Despite the direct threat to law, order, & common decency that he represents, Trump is still just a buffoon, an egotistical moron with the wits and taste of a donkey. Any competent political opponent should make a complete mockery of such a foolish, boorish man. It's really not difficult to expose his obvious and constant lies, or call him out on his insufferable bullshit.
The fact that not as much attention was given to Trump being a shamelessly lying maniac with stupid, insane statements shows two things:
1) Everyone is so used to Trump constantly being a shamelessly lying maniac with stupid, insane statements that it's just like, "Oh, there he goes again!"
2) Biden was so unbelievably bad & clearly impaired, that nothing like it has been seen in all of televised politics.
What a fucking train-wreck. It would have probably just been sad if it was a semi-competent candidate debating Biden, but with Trump's lunacy it became absolutely surreal. Biden was completely helpless to counter any of the nonsense that should have been easily dispelled. The optics were just brutal - Grandpa Joe standing there mouth agape, forgetting anything even resembling a train of thought.
People around this country and around the world were horrified to see that the last line of defense against an immoral, criminal, fascist fuck at the head of the most powerful nation on Earth is a mentally declining slightly-more-elderly man who could not even put a convincing thought together (forget making compelling policy arguments). It was a complete shitshow, and the aftermath has been just as nuts.
Biden & the DNC, have potentially royally screwed this country if Trump pulls off a victory by them not preparing another candidate to replace Biden after one term (as he promised). Although Kamala Harris is really the only person who could replace him and keep the campaign funds & infrastructure, America is still full of racists and misogynists who would never vote for a female President with dark complexion.
So we are less than half a year away from the General Election, and we are in the political equivalent of the twilight zone. Trump even being in the running to be President again is a complete & utter travesty. He is fraud and perversion personified.
Meanwhile, the man who is supposed to be the Leader of the Free World is calling President Zelenski of Ukraine fucking "PUTIN", and his own Vice-President "TRUMP"... & this is after he is supposed to convince us that he is still fit to lead. Joe is rocketing past Justice Ginsberg & Senator Feinstein in letting hubris & self-assured arrogance tarnish their legacy. By clinging to their positions in government, they've caused serious damage to the institutions they claimed to be serving.
It's embarrassing that our entrenched, rotting 2-party system has thrust these choices on us, out of millions of capable citizens. Let's be clear - I will vote for Joe Biden's re-animated corpse before I vote for Donald Trump. I think Biden's administration has done positive things for the country and I admire his tenacity, but it is clear that he's not cognitively & functionally up to the tremendous task of leading the country.
We, as a society, cannot let a vulgarian such as Trump gain positions of power again, without severe detriment to our system of government. The question at this stage of the game is how is he stopped, without creating an even riskier scenario if Biden steps aside? I don't know, but I do know that if the Trump Family, Steve Bannons, Stephen Millers, and Heritage Foundation zealots get in control of things again, it's gonna be a bad time. We are in an amazing era, where technology and knowledge are opening up unbelievable possibilities... and these assholes want to take us back to the feudal ages.
Let's hope that the bizarre crap-shoot of life somehow averts the national & global disaster that a second Trump administration would bring. It's definitely a worrisome set of circumstances, and it shows just how totally wacked-out American politics is, in general. I guess, like always... we just have to sit back and experience the puppet show.
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