Debate Debacle
The “debate” between Biden and Trump was an almost total waste of viewing time. There was one important exception. Biden was asked whether he favored ending the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court. He declined to answer. Chris pushed him once. He declined again. Trump pushed him several times. His answer was “go out and vote”.
If I had been Trump, I would have had a different response, which follows.
OK, we are now going to have a new debate format. No matter what question I get asked for the rest of the evening, the answer is going to be my response to Joe’s evasion of the only important question we are addressing this evening.
Joe is afraid to answer the question because any answer will ruin his campaign. There are currently two Democratic parties. I’ll call them regular and radical. The regulars pulled his primary campaign out of the ditch and handed him the nomination. The radicals are the ascending force in the party and they intend to take it over. If Joe answers yes to the question, he will scare the regulars that are a significant majority of people inclined to vote for him. If he answers no, the radicals will sit on their hands on election day as they did in 2016, because they were mad about the way Hillary and the DNC treated Bernie. In order to get a foot in both camps, Joe ran to the center in the primaries and to the left once he got the nomination. Since securing the nomination, his only pushback against the radicals is a rejection of the “defund the police” demand. Even that pushback is a bit mushy.
Love me or hate me, you know what you are voting for. I’ve spoken my mind (usually without an edit button); I’ve tweeted; I’ve enacted policies. With Joe, it is now a complete crapshoot. Are you voting for a Democratic administration that will try to make incremental progress on decarbonization, expand Medicare at the margins and ramp up income redistribution to some extent? Or . . . are you voting for an administration that will end the filibuster, pack the Supreme Court, grant statehood to DC and Puerto Rico, abolish the Electoral College, end cash bail, outlaw right-to-work statutes, enable card check union certification, close down coal generation, end fracking, nationalize health care, radically raise taxes, confiscate inherited wealth, mandate energy retrofit for every building in America and a do few more things that have slipped my mind because I’m almost as old as Joe.
You can ask me anything you want to. In response, I will keep talking about this until the cameras go dark.
This imaginary rendition is not intended as an endorsement of Trump or a partisan statement of any kind. We have a constitutional democracy. That means a majority of voters can choose to be governed in any fashion that is in line with the Constitution. A super majority of voters can change the Constitution. There is no reason we can’t have the progressive paradise as envisioned by Bernie and Elizabeth and Alexandria. It is simply my assertion that we should know what we are choosing when we go to the voting booth or the mailbox. Joe should not be able to have it both ways.
