“Our only hope is he bows out…. otherwise, we are f***ing dead.” — anonymous Democratic strategist.
The expectations for the first debate between current President Biden and former President Trump were pretty low. Months of repeated assurance by Democratic strategists Claire McCaskill and news anchors like Lawrence O’ Donnell swore up and down that Biden was up to the task.
All he had to do was show that he was mentally sharp and up to the job of another four years, he can’t fuck that up right? Right?
Well….
Biden not only didn’t dispel those rumors, but reinforced the belief that he is too old to be President as he was showing clear and evident signs of cognitive decline. The sound of his raspy, gravely, whispery voice rambling incoherently in contrast to the strong, clear, and confident tone of voice of his opponent made Trump look more electable.
Live streaming the debate was even worse.
Biden could be seen most of the time looking slack jawed looking over at Trump as he was talking. Biden looked completely lost as if he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s or dementia because when he did talk, he didn’t even make sense.
“[We’re] making sure that were able to make every solitary person eligible…for what I’ve been able to do with the -with the COVID…(scrunches face)..excuse me with the um….dealing with everything we have to do with uh…….look….if…..we finally beat Medicare.”
Jon Stewart on the daily show weighed in with a similar facial expression I and many others had painfully watching his underperformance.
In fact, the debate was so bad even the talking heads at MSNBC were completely gob smacked at how pathetic his performance was at this debate. “There’s no way” we can spin this said a glum looking Alex Wagner. Biden fanboys Lawrence O’Donnell and Joe Scarborough were not able to defend him and openly criticized him. Democratic strategists and donors were apparently in a full-blown panic as the incumbent President reignited concerns about his age despite the fact that he and Trump are only three years apart (81 versus 78, respectively).
This was one of my biggest fears four years ago as the Democratic party coalesced around Biden to stop Bernie before Super Tuesday. While Bernie Sanders was sharp, quick witted, and would likely beat Trump with a chair at a debate stage, my fear was that Biden was in the early stages of cognitive decline. Those fear were reinforced in last night’s debate as he fumbled, kept losing his train of thought, and worse looked awful compared to Trump. And I fucking hate the orange looking felon who is also in stages of cognitive decline.
I remember those same voices from the NYT and MNSBC years ago hypocritically calling Bernie too old whilst overlooking the fact that Biden was only one year younger than him at the time. They were all too happy to point out Bernie’s age, yet rationalized Biden’s clear early signs of decline in March 2020. Now they are starting to see what all the rest of us warned them about: that Biden is in clear decline and does not have the ability to continue on another four years a president.
All these strategists pressured the base to support him even though Biden had no plans to reform the Supreme Court, no plans for reparations, and no plans to deal with increasing police brutality against BIPOC communities.
Trump also in Decline
Although during the debate Trump came across as confident and assured numerous sources have confirmed that the 79-year-old felon is also in stages of cognitive decline. The former President would fall under the definition of a psychopath and a narcissist whose disregard for even mild criticism of him causes him to violently lash out and seek revenge. Trump is now planning Project 2025 which would seek to actively suppress whatever freedom of the press there is left, eliminate voting rights, institute a national ban on abortion, and likely appoint more far right justices. This would eliminate what’s left of environmental protection, net neutrality, union rights, same sex marriage, and privatize our water and electricity firms at a national level.
Trump was always a pathological liar and his lack of impulse control and ability to rule like a dictator makes him a dangerous person to ever set foot in the white house again. His cognitive decline has led to him saying bizarre things similar to Biden by referring to his opponent as “Obama” and in Las Vegas earlier this month said this in the middle of a of a desert:
“It must be because of M.I.T., my relationship with M.I.T., very smart. I say, ‘What would happen if the boat sank from its weight and you’re in the boat and you have this tremendously powerful battery, and the battery is now underwater, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?” Trump said. “By the way, lot of shark attacks lately. Did you notice that?” — Trump in Las Vegas
Sharks in Las Vegas?
He’s been watching too many Sharknado movies
Conclusion
Although Trump did slightly come out on top of the debate, both Presidential candidates are in stages of cognitive decline and have been for some time. Although Biden has done some good to make sure people were vaccinated from the pandemic, expanded union rights, brought back net neutrality, I feel like he should pass the torch to someone else. I would rather have a decent one term president who is in his early 80s than have Biden continue to make gaffes and hand the election to Trump. Trump is a psychopathic narcissist who is also a convicted felon, appointed justices who overturned Roe v. Wade ended net neutrality, and completely fucked up the response to the pandemic leading to more deaths. The convicted felon is also calling for locking up protesters, replacing taxes with tariffs which costs more money to taxpayers, ending abortion nationwide leading to back-alley abortions once again, and rule by decree like Hitler did.
The choice is for the voters to decide. I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by saying that Biden did well in the debate. He didn’t he blew it when he had multiple chances to directly challenge Trump on his lies about killing babies after they were born. As did CNN who never bothered fact-checking him on the air doing a disservice to the millions who watched the debate by letting him get away with his lies. But Trump much like Biden is also in decline and Trump’s increasingly dictatorial power and calls to lock up peaceful protestors who disagree with him makes him no different than Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.
As the NYT editorial board released today in their headline to prevent a fascist dictator like Trump from getting back in again, he must be replaced as the Democratic nominee for President with someone younger and sharper. It’s better than enduring four more years of fascism.
