That Was Bad

(It's Joever)

Well, at least we proved that he's not on drugs, right?

In all seriousness, last night's debate was a travesty. It was not an all-out harbinger of apocalypse like the first one from 2020 was (at least we had muted mics this time) but let's none of us fool ourselves, alright? What happened last night was objectively bad for our country and everyone in it. It shows that we deserve the candidates that we have. We deserve a convicted felon and a babbling old fart. I have seen no proof in the last eight years that we have earned any better than this.

Who won the debate last night? Well, there are many options to choose from. The alcohol and teletherapy industries, perhaps. Or maybe whoever made the music that played during the commercial breaks on the YouTube livestream. In my opinion, the winners were Tina Fey and Matt Groening, because I needed an episode each of 30 Rock and Futurama to soothe my soul after that.

Both candidates were disasters in different ways. We're lucky enough that they were disasters in the ways that their already-decided voters don't care about. Trump spouted lies about post-birth abortions, said "I didn't sleep with a porn star" (a sentence that should never unironically be uttered by a presidential candidate), and, surprise surprise, refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election (methinks he's excited for another January 6th). Meanwhile, Biden wandered all over the place, made the baffling decision to steer away from talking about the issues voters favor him on, and continued his unfortunate strategy of telling people that their economic troubles aren't real. He lost his train of thought multiple times and spoke in a raspy, sometimes difficult-to-understand voice.

On the other side of the coin, each candidate won in the ways their voters care about. Biden was largely sensible in terms of policy and was willing to act like the adult in the room, and Trump was willing to spout off the most insane nonsense you will ever hear while still being as dynamic and sleazy as his cult voter base loves. Of course, nobody is voting Trump for policy. They're voting for him because they like that he signifies chaos, and that he's willing to say the unspeakable things they want to say but can't because of the "woke PC leftists." Trump was a big and insane talker, and so he won his voters over. Biden was a halfway sensible human being, so he won his voters over.

Well, I shouldn't say Biden won his voters over. The tide of thinkpieces encouraging him to drop out has already begun. Is it a bad idea for him to drop out? On the one hand, absolutely it is, are you out of your mind? On the other hand, no it's not, what are we gonna do, elect him?

I know I've spent a lot of this blog post dumping on Biden. My vote still hasn't changed. There is nothing in the world that could get me to vote for Trump. Everything I saw from Trump during this debate has further convinced me that he is a danger to our country. He denied saying there were "fine people on both sides" during Chartlottesville when the evidence was right there. And for anyone who wants to tell me he condemned the Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, I would say that means very little when you consider the people he said were "very fine" were carrying Confederate flags. Plus, let us not forget his meeting with actual white supremacist Nick Fuentes, who he was reportedly very impressed with. 

 I've said it before and I'll say it again: we cannot allow Donald Trump to win the White House. If that means electing the slightly older of two farts, then so be it.