Trump’s statements on the debate floor during the final debate were so wrong and deceitful that I don’t want to waste any time citing them. However, I want to spend the rest of the article on how an “empathetic person” would have responded to these questions.
The only way we can grade Trump’s responses will be to evaluate them against how an empathetic, moral, and compassionate person would have responded to these questions. Let’s assume for the sake of this article that this hypothetical president (let’s call him President USA) has done all the mistakes that Trump has committed, but had a transformational moment occur in his life a couple of weeks before the debate. For example, President USA is morbidly obese and 75 years old, and he was considered a high risk if infected. President USA has been infected with a deadly virus and he survives it, thanks to the best medicines and best doctors offered only to him by the taxpayers.
Here is a sample of President USA’s responses to the questions
Debate Moderator
The country is heading into a dangerous new phase. More than 40,000 Americans are in the hospital tonight with COVID, including record numbers here in Tennessee. And since the two of you last shared a stage, 16,000 Americans have died from COVID. So please be specific. How would you lead the country during this next stage of the coronavirus crisis?
President USA response
As I was being treated in Walter Reed, I realized I made many mistakes over the last 8 months.
I was wrong to call COVID19 a hoax.
I should have warned the people sooner.
I should have closed the country
I should have encouraged everyone to wear masks
I could have listened to our scientists.
I shouldn’t have belittled the virus
I should have never conducted rallies and infected my supporters
I could have done more, a lot more on COVID.
If I get a second chance, I will select a bipartisan commission of scientists, democrats, and republicans to make all decisions regarding this crisis. I will allow this commission to make autonomous decisions, just like the FBI or DOJ were supposed to operate. I will go against my own party to fight for healthcare for every American citizen.
I will do everything in my power to enable the right people to make the right decisions and will not contradict, second-guess, or overrule them.
Can you imagine if this response came out of President Trump’s mouth? It would have created a huge, immediate change to the behavior of his supporters, and would have probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
What did we hear from President Trump?
I can tell you from personal experience, I was in the hospital. I had it and I got better. And I will tell you that I had something that they gave me, a therapeutic, I guess they would call it. Some people could say it was a cure, but I was in for a short period of time. And I got better very fast or I wouldn’t be here tonight. And now they say I’m immune. Whether it’s four months or a lifetime, nobody’s been able to say that, but I’m immune. More and more people are getting better. We have a problem that’s a worldwide problem. This is a worldwide problem, but I’ve been congratulated by the heads of many countries on what we’ve been able to do. If you take a look at what we’ve done in terms of goggles and masks and gowns and everything else, and in particular ventilators we’re now making ventilators all over the world, thousands and thousands a month distributing them all over the world. It will go away. And as I say, we’re rounding the turn. We’re rounding the corner. It’s going away.
I wrote earlier this month about the first debate and the immediate aftermath of Trump’s COVID diagnosis. After the first debate, and President Trump’s general lack of discipline, completely incoherent messaging, and overall disposition did not leave any doubt in our minds that the final debate will be an act of desperation. In other words, we had our bar set so low that if Trump does not spit on Joe Biden, he will be considered civil. If Trump did not punch the moderator in the face or did not say something obscene, we should consider his performance stellar. The bar has been set so low that a kindergartner could be graded on this curve, and will very likely come out ahead of “our dear leader”.
A human with no sympathy, empathy, and introspection does not deserve to lead even a small team. As the CEO of a small company, I make so many decisions by putting myself in the shoes of my employees, managers, and directors. President Trump does not have the capability to put himself in his own shoes and listen to his own soul. I am pretty sure he has a soul, he just needs to stop tweeting, yelling, and yelling to listen to it. He is unfortunately incapable of conducting such introspection. In fact, I was hoping for such a transformation and wrote about how his COVID diagnosis could have been a good thing for the nation. Unfortunately, this did not happen, as President Trump refuses to look at himself in the mirror and take responsibility for his actions.
Joe Biden differs from Donald Trump on policy positions with respect to healthcare, social justice, systemic racism, climate change, economy, among other things. While each of these policy differences is significant in their own way, one can argue that these differences are similar to the differences between Clinton vs HW Bush, Al Gore Vs. GW Bush, Obama Vs. Romney, etc. The place where Biden and Trump are diametrically opposite to each other is Character. Biden’s unifying compassion, impeccable integrity, and unwavering empathy, when contrasted with Trump’s divisive vitriol, immoral corruption, and absolute brutality are frankly beyond any compare.
There are many reasons why President Trump failed us in the last four years. However, his lack of character and integrity disqualifies him as the leader of our great nation.
We certainly cannot save President Trump’s soul, but we can restore America’s soul this November, by voting him out.