Debate Was a Wake Up Call for America

The message may just not be the one you were expecting.

The June 27 debate between President Biden and ex-president/convicted felon Donald Trump was a wake-up call for Americans, particularly for Democrats. Let’s hope they get the message.

Yes, it is almost a cliche at this point to say it, but Joe Biden had a bad debate night.

But do you know who also had a bad debate night–a worse debate night, in fact, than Biden?

The 34 x convicted felon Donald Trump.

Trump lied pretty much nonstop.  He smeared.  He whined—from start to finish.  He even repeated—multiple times—that he would not accept the election outcome if he lost it.  With these statements, he signaled that January 6 might just have been a dress rehearsal for another run at his overthrowing our government.

The political malpractice of the Republican Party was also on full display.  With Trump’s criminal indictments and now 34 convictions, being found liable for sexual assault, plus his effort to overthrow the government, Republicans not only nominated Trump anyway, but they also acted as if being a one-man, rolling crime wave and trying to destroy our government is regular and of no concern.

When I grew up in Van Meter and Adel, Iowa, in the 1960s, you wouldn’t have been able to be a local scoutmaster with that record. For today’s Republicans—heck! They’ll nominate you for President of the United States with it, no questions asked.

Nobody in good standing in the Republican party has suggested he leave the Republican ticket.  They are planning to celebrate his nomination later this month.

Americans who watched the debate saw their choice between two flawed candidates in this election.  Age is not the issue.  They are both roughly the same age.  Neither were good communicators that night.

The issues are their character, what they stand for, and whether they can be trusted and will tell the truth.

At the debate, Biden was battling—in addition to a lifelong stutter—jet lag, a bad cold, and abysmal debate prep by his staff, who let him down.  All of that, except the stutter, can be fixed.  It is also unlikely to be repeated, and it is essential to note that none of it has been repeated since the debate.

Trump’s is a much different story. They are repeated every time he gets near a microphone.

Trump’s are baked deeply into who he is.  They will never change: Three and a half years after he was put out of the White House by the American people, Americans saw that he is still the same old incompetent, ignorant whiner and peddler of personal grievances he has always been.  He is still a pathological liar, an opponent of democracy, and a smear artist who constantly works in an “evidence-free zone.”

At the debate, Trump demonstrated that he can’t can’t develop new material.  His mountain of lies and complaints was the same old tired trash he’d peddled for years.  Sure, he may have sounded better telling his lies than Biden sounded telling his truths, but there is nothing eloquent about a firehose of time-worn lies.

And there is something noble about the one who stands up to the lies, fights for, and tells the truth.

Trump offered undecided voters little to nothing in the form of policy proposals.

On the other hand, Biden offered truthful accounts of what his administration has accomplished and the work he intends to continue in a second term.

The problem for Trump is this:  his flaws and failures cannot be fixed.

The core of Trump proves his disinterest in policy if the policies are not connected to helping him grab power, the hollowness of his character, and his inability to do anything but lie.

He’s not running to build a better America. Or to make things better for Americans.

He’s running to stay out of prison.

That’s what undecided voters saw on the debate stage from Trump. I don’t think they can unsee it by Election Day. Even though Biden’s numbers have dipped a little—usually within or close to the poll’s margin of error—Trump’s numbers did not go up significantly.

Something else Americans saw on debate night: Both candidates have records as president.   Trump’s record is so bad that he had to lie about it, even claiming as his things Biden is famous for achieving. It was a pathetic thing to witness.

Trump’s record is one of catastrophe:

• Economic collapse;
• An avoidable pandemic he let happen through negligence, inaction, and arrogance that killed 375,000 Americans in 2020 alone;
• Farm markets disrupted;
• Record unemployment;
• Record levels of national debt;
• Extortion of an America’s allies;
• And an attempt to overthrow our government when he lost the election.

Bideen’s record is one of historic success:

• Rebuilding of the American economy;
• Putting an end to the pandemic;
• Personal earnings that have gone up;
• Job growth and low unemployment rates are setting records;
• Stock market record highs;
• Inflation, driven by pandemic disruptions and corporate greed is falling;
• Much of American infrastructure is being rebuilt – adding even more jobs to the economy;
• The cost of insulin, capped at $35;
• And a host of other policies, programs, and initiatives that strengthen and improve the lives of millions of Americans every day.

There is no need to lie to make that record look good.

Biden may not have been the most eloquent speaker at the debate about these accomplishments, but he is the president who made these accomplishmentshappen.

As Biden said the day after the debate, “I know what I do know.  I know how to tell the truth, and I know how to do this job.”

“Yes!”  Biden does.

Democrats need to move past the hand-wringing.  I understand it, and reasonable people can disagree on the debate and its implications for the campaign.

But here’s what I know.

It is time for Democrats to move on and focus on winning in November.

Joe Biden ran in the primaries, won them, and earned the delegates who will nominate him for a second term in Chicago in August.

Only Joe Biden can undo that, and he has clarified that he won’t.   He’s it.  Move on.  There is important work to do.  Now.

Joe Biden earned the right to decide by entering the primaries and winning enough delegates to secure the nomination.  If some in the party were concerned about his age, they could have – and perhaps should have – run against him in the primaries and tested the strength of that argument.  They did not.

Joe Biden also earned the right to make that decision based on the strength of his record in office, which is truly a historic achievement.

He deserves better than to have a few in his party try to define him by one bad debate night.

America is four months away from Election Day.

Democrats need to understand that this stopped being an intramural contest some time ago.  It’s to gear up for and work toward the big game—General Election Day.

The fight for Democrats, at this point, needs to be with Donald Trump, not with each other.

Frankly, it is kind of absurd to now wonder whether Joe Biden can be President of the United States when he has been doing it for three and a half years and performing at historically significant levels of success.

He may not be the fastest or smoothest walker.  But neither was Franklin Roosevelt.

There is simply no evidence that Joe Biden can’t do the job.  Remember the constant leaks from the Trump White House suggesting how unfit he was for the office?  If the same were true of Biden, you’d hear about it.

We Democrats should – must – run against Donald Trump as the enemy of democracy that he is, but how do they do that if a few naysayers eject him at the last minute as their nominee, after he competed in and won the nomination through a democratic process?  The debate’s call message was that:

• The stakes of this election are very high and go well beyond the tribal wars that have defined too much of it so far.
• The presidential campaign wake-up call before America’s 2024 presidential election is clear and stark. Democracy hangs in the balance.
• Democrats do not have the luxury of being diverted from the tasks at hand – defeating Donald Trump, sweeping MAGA Republicans out of office, and winning a new lease on life for democracy in America.

Focus, Democrats, focus. 

That’s what the wake-up call is all about.

The times call for a timely, focused, and all-out fight, not the chaos and confusion of a last-minute game of “fruit basket upset.”