Ellipsis: The Pence/Harris Debate October 7th 2020

Thursday, October 08, 2020

The Pence/Harris Debate October 7th 2020

"Skill at debate is not the same as maturity."

~ Ted Chiang

Exhalation:Stories

Well, right off I can say last night's Pence/Harris debate wasn't the shitshow that the first Trump/Biden debate was, but then no one was expecting it to be. What it was, however, was an actual, mostly by the book, debate! Strange, I know, because the political dialog in America has gone so far off the rails in recent years, that it's almost unrecognizable. So how is it possible that those two managed to hold a fairly reasonable debate? I don't really know! I have heard reality tv described as human cockfighting, and if that's true, it's pretty fair to say our "reality tv president" made sure American politics was too. But Pence, while pretty much as big a liar as Trump, does seem to balance the ticket out by being Trump's clean-up man, so he is a bit more crafty with his lying style. And what a good job he does at that. Condescending. Smug. Trumpian ass kisser extraordinaire. All virtues that turns "Mother" (Karen Pence) on, I'm sure, but at the end of the day, I am pretty confident that while, Pence did his very best, most folks watching know exactly what was what. Kamala Harris won the debate, easily, by not lying, and making their platform clear.

The Moderator, Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief for, USA Today, lost her patience more than once with V.P. Pence who was, lking over Harris, using more time then was allotted to him, and cutting Harris before she was finished answering questions, she also at times allowed both to engage in that behavior, at times, but to be honest, that behavior has pretty much occurred in most political debates I have viewed in my life. She wasn't the complete pushover Fox New's Chris Wallace was, but she actually didn't do a really good job of moderating either. There are two more scheduled debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and I would like to see the moderator... I don't know... moderate. History will write this chapter too. It's not even a done deal that the next debate will take place, in that Donald Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19, just last weekend.

So there's that.

Joe Biden is refusing to attend the next debate, if Trump is still testing positive, and rightly so. Trump has been conducting himself like a miracle has already happened, and he has beaten the disease, despite unhinged tweeting and weird videos to prove there is nothing wrong. Trump is currently at 20,000 lies for his presidency, so believing he is well, is pretty difficult at best. Politicians lie, as do tv reality stars, but he is truly special in his star power as a liar. He has never seemed particularly stable, but since being prescribed the steroids to fight the Covid-19 infec thetion, he seems more unstable than usual, which is saying something. As we move closer to the election I am afraid his mental health will only continue to deteriorate. But his lashing out at all of us, at some point, has been my fear since he took office in January of 2017. But like everything else, it's out of all of our control. And that's a horrible feeling.

So, I guess my take away from the debate is this. I have even more respect for Senator Kamala Harris then I did before. I am very sure of my choice of she and Joe Biden to lead our county, but, in truth, I would have voted for a whoever made it to the top of the ticket. Elizabeth Warren was my first choice. I voted for her in the primary. She didn't win the nomination. Joe Biden did and I am more than okay with that. I know he is ready to lead. I know he won't get us killed. I know he wouldn't have chosen Kamala Harris, if he wasn't sure she was ready to lead as vice president, she is ready, should he ever need to hand powers over to her because he cannot serve. We (America) have maturity, stabiliy, and intelligence ready to lead us out of the darkest time I remember as an American. I wish I could list all the times and reasons why Ive gone to bed, in the last four years, crying or scared to death, despondent, depressed, or suffering from a stress induced headache, because I was afraid to look away.

I don't expect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to solve my problems, they can't, and anyone who believes it's their job too, has NO idea what politics is, or how it works. I don't expect things to change overnight and suddenly there will only be only sunny days, and autumn for the next 12 months. Nothing is perfect, and there is a lot of cleaning up to do, after all the damage of the last four years. I don't even expect to not be wearing a mask a year from now. The Covid-19 pandemic is now going to be around a while, but I do expect to experience a lot less political stress overall. In fact, while my support for Biden and Harris will remain steadfast after they take office, I plan to back away from obsessing on politics. I was always into politics, it was a subject dad and I could talk about it at length, but it's now just one more thing Donald Trump managed to ruin for me. And the ironic thing... he has no idea what it is, or how it is done. He just treats everyone, and every issue, the way he has is whole life, like it only matters if it profits him.

Forgive the picture I chose, of Mike Pence, for this post. It was such a strange moment when that fly landed on his head during the debate. It's the off beat moments in life that I sometimes remember the clearest. That's admittedly, my immaturity at work. It's just the type of thing that Alan and I, and some on Twitter, would have put on their, Apocalyptic Bingo cards. Unfortunately, I didn't see that coming! Why would a fly be in the debate hall, when the powers that be, were going to such lengths to make sure it was safe and sanitary? They put up not one, but two sheets of plexiglass between Pence and Harris! So how and why was there a fly? And it landed on Pence? It was just one more joke on all of us, by 2020. And to think, it's not done with us yet!