The kids wanted to watch the presidential debate last night, and against my better judgement I tried to watch it too. I made it twenty minutes, and every single minute was a mistake, and now those twenty minutes are in my brain. I feel sick, poisoned. There was nothing good, nothing right, nothing wise, nothing useful, nothing of any value. On one side there was a corrupt old white man-ape and his lion-skin-robed donkey, the pair of them presenting as a single unit, the new false God of the white nationalist evangelical Christian party. [If you have not read the Narnia books in awhile, or ever: that’s a Narnia reference. It occurred to me that for those who didn’t grow up in the white protestant Christian church and steeped in C.S. Lewis, that metaphor might hit…oddly.] On the other side there was the appointed champion of the Democratic party, who will get my vote if I have to walk through fire and glass and virus to do it because he is a decent human being who wants to do right, which puts him in a completely different league than his opponent—but who is nevertheless a disappointing affable chuckling aw-shucks yet-another-old-white man who, with all this time to study and train to handle his opponent’s debate style, still descended within ten minutes to “Shut up” and “I got WAY more votes, WAY more!!”—but at least wasn’t an endless fountain of baffling lies and didn’t call on violent armed white nationalists to stand by, which feels like a very low bar but this is where we are. And even with four years to prepare for this day, there was a moderator (a third old white man, what an odd coincidence) who could not moderate, in part because he wasn’t given the tools needed for moderating someone who refuses to follow debate rules, despite our clear and experience-based foreknowledge that that would be a serious issue.
Burn it all fucking down.
Hard agree
You are stronger than me for watching that shit show.
I am admittedly a bigger Joe Biden fan than you are. But I am not sure what he could or should have done better. He couldn’t just stand there and not respond and not occasionally assert himself. It’s a terrible double standard for sure.
The system is crap, but right now the only way out is through electing Biden.
Also part of the reason we got this idiot as our president is because there were lots of stupid people who thought both candidates were equally bad and either didn’t vote or voted third party. We can’t have that this time.
And the electoral college, don’t forget the electoral college, where a candidate can get millions and millions more votes and still lose.
I made it through the whole thing, but I can’t promise I’ll do it again. Except the v.p. debate. I’ll probably watch that.
I’m ready for a strong woman to take down Pence. I’ll be watching that as well!
Not watching because it can’t/won’t change my mind. Would vote for a literal banana against that actual criminal of a President. Last night we played Overcooked 2 and put our phones in airplane mode. I have no regrets.
We could of had taco trucks on every corner. I will never not be sad about that election. Ditto on everything you said.
Ah, I forgot about the taco trucks! All that outdoor dining would have been a boon during this stupid pandemic too.
I tried to stop watching it, and then found I was too agitated to read my book. I turned it back on, which was great because then I got to see the current President of the United States just absolutely unable to decry white supremacy. It was unbelievable.
Sadly, I could not help thinking that any of the other Democratic candidates: Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker–any one of them would have been snappier and more incisive arguing against Trump last night.
Also, apparently we need a new debate format since the President behaves like an untrained dog.
“There was nothing good, nothing right, nothing wise, nothing useful, nothing of any value.” Yes. My feelings exactly. My husband and I watched it, although I mainly scrolled through my phone at about the halfway point because it made me physically uncomfortable to watch.
I felt this exactly. And will not be watching any other debates besides the VP one.
I don’t know about the VP debate. I still have flashbacks of Pence slowly shaking his head no, saying “trump never said that” when being confronted with exact quotes from Trump at the last VP debate. Still infuriates me.
I waved between rage and despondency. None of this is good for us.
As a rule-follower myself, I CANNOT STAND that he simply REFUSES to follow the debate rules. I was annoyed by, but also felt so sorry for the moderator, unable to moderate with all the *ing TALKING OUT OF TURN.
I was watching on the NYTimes website with live commentary from their reporters and the best comment that one of them made was, “There has never been a better advertisement for women candidates.” That resonated deeply with me.
I watched every last painful second but I am a total political junkie. I heard Warren and Sanders in my head alot and I shouted at the tv, begging Biden to comeback with their words and thoughts. Best summary from the pundits: This is not an election about Trump vs Biden. It is about Trump vs Us. What kind of people do we want to be? We want to be the kind who vote like their life depends on it because, honestly, it does.
CNN’s Dana Bash had the line of the night, after the debate. She called it a shitshow. Live on TV. Apologized for crudeness, but I was so glad she said it.
My heart was pounding & it was stunning & horrible. Even knowing it would be. This morning I feel deep boned grief.
I had to take Youngest to soccer practice right as the debate started and it is just far enough away that I don’t drive back and forth, but instead stay in my car and read a book so I missed the entire debate and I’ve seldom been happier to have missed something in my entire life. I will never forgive the media for sabotaging every one of the much better woman candidates we could have had in this election or for tanking Hilary last election or for both sides-ing this ignorant racist jackass right into the presidency. I’m so angry at the state of this country I don’t even know what to do with all of my anger anymore. There’s no more room for it. I’m full up.
Honestly, if you can, donate money.
Go to Vote Save America and adopt a state.
I drunkenly donated lots last night. And bought some merch that I hope arrives soon.
It made me feel a little better.
If That Man is re-elected, I see nothing for it but to stop reading or listening to news altogether — and to cut off all connection with anyone who supports him. Not because that’s a solution to anything, but I can’t bear to live my life at my current level of despair and anguish. If I am to go on with life at all, I must find a way to cope. Our next-door neighbors just added a new sign (LAW AND ORDER — VOTE TRUMP) to their gargantuan TRUMP 2020 and Police flags. I feel like I live next door to Nazi headquarters.
THIS! Same thing here. So much despair.
Does “law and order” include crimes like, say, tax fraud? I know that “law and order” is a dog whistle, but it seems like such a narrow way of thinking about legal conduct.
And I’m sorry. It is hard to see signs like that right next door.
My thoughts are a mess even though I didn’t watch it.
I heard someone on the radio say “it was not a debate, nor was it Presidential.” DING DING DING that is correct!
NPR got in a good zinger at the end of their online recap: there should be a little device to zap any candidate who strays off topic.
A neighbor has a sign that says “Is your refrigerator running? Because I might vote for it.” REFRIGERATORS FOR BIDEN 2020.
You 100% captured my thoughts and feelings on this. I think I probably turned it off right around the same time because I couldn’t take it anymore.
One thing I have done lately that has drastically improved my mental health on this matter is remove social media from my phone. I really can’t handle one more person who “both sides” this. I’m not Biden fan (and fall probably slightly right of center), but to act like we aren’t in a speeding car being driven by a drunk the wrong way down the interstate right now is INSANE. So maybe Biden isn’t my preferred car driver, but I’ll happily take him over THAT.
Also highly recommend removing social media. Twitter was making me so anxious with constant COVID updates and Facebook was either ads or political crap. I still have instagram, which I have used rarely enough to have no idea how it works. I follow things like McCormick spices and various zoos and botanical gardens. When I check it, I follow few enough things I get a “you’re all caught up” checkmark. Very, very nice.
Right now, we must be 100% ALL IN for Biden. After he wins, we can explain that he’s not who we hoped for, or everything we want him to be. Right now, he IS. We have to behave enthusiastically, vigorously, excitedly. We do not have the luxury of being half-hearted. I remember, all too well, those dark days of November 2016. And they kept getting worse and worse. Muslim ban. Environmental rollbacks. Crooks in office. Corruption. Grift. The wall. KIDS IN CAGES. And a pandemic, with more than 200,000 American lives lost. Joe Biden is at the top of the ticket, with Kamela right behind him. I am voting Blue all the way down. I didn’t last as long as Swistle did last night, but today I am fired up again.
D, I agree. I’m an old woman who’s voted mostly Republican my whole life. But I’m 100% ALL IN for Biden. If Republicans have ANY THOUGHT of saving the Republican Party, they need to jump the Trump ship NOW. They can save the Republican Party later, if Trump hasn’t already destroyed it. Four more years of Trump, it will be gone, and that will be the least of our worries.
Susan, thank you!
I love you all. I drank my way through it
I got about 20 minutes in too before turning it off. Not worth the increased anxiety when it’s not like I need to watch to know who I’m voting for.
They need to give the moderator the ability to cut that asshole’s mic in the next one.
I agree with everything you said. My husband turned it off after 20 minutes and I watched the whole thing. Guess which one of us tossed and turned all night?
This T-shirt might be for you. https://hotmerchforbiden.com/products/kamala-2020-oh-and-joe-t-shirt
I’m going to state an unpopular opinion by saying it is incredibly important to watch these debates. We can’t turn away from this not only because Trump is our President, but because what his being our President says about our country. As painful as it is, we need to watch and do the work necessary to set this right.
In terms of Biden, I give him a lot of credit. Here we are complaining that we cannot even bear to watch the debate, and he actually has to “debate” him, i.e. listen as he insults his family, continuously interrupts with baseless assertions, and debases our democracy. Joe was never a great debater, but who among us would ever take his place?
I watched with my 16-year-old, and then we donated to the Biden/Harris campaign. They have to win. They just have to.
I was infuriated when I read that Chris Christie prepped the President to interrupt, interrupt, interrupt as a way to make a childhood stutterer (Biden) stress out until he couldn’t utter a complete sentence and could then be portrayed as “slow” and riddled with dementia. I was proud of Joe that he didn’t crumble under that attack (although he wasn’t my first choice as a Democratic candidate).