I’m putting this up more as a discussion topic than as an absolute statement of my preference. But I believe its worthwhile to discuss given the approach POTUS is taking towards this election and the authoritarian pronouncements he continues to make.
So Trump always projects. He says what he is thinking but makes it the other person’s thoughts. When he said today that Biden doesn’t want to debate, he means he doesn’t want to debate.
If there are other debates, frankly the topic should be whether we have a democracy or not. Trump clearly is not interested in running for president. He doesn’t think he should have to. His behavior at the debate was meant to demean it. The history of the Trump presidency has been to invalidate many of the traditions, rules, and processes that allow a democracy to function. A functioning democracy is of no interest to him because he’d like to join the club along w Putin, Kimmy, Erdogan and other autocrats. And btw he’d have the biggest military in that club. His strategy thus far appears to be the denigration of the voting process and declaring that ballots are invalid and untrustworthy. In other words, he really has no use for this election. Its a worthless inconvenience in his mind.
Having established that, why would u have a “debate” on issues like healthcare, racism, equal rights etc, when you have one of the candidates who doesn’t believe in a democratic process and the fundamental principles of a democratic society? Of what value then is a debate on proposals regarding taxation, healthcare, foreign policy, etc when you have one person who believes in a democratic system and one that does not.
So why bother? What’s the value of hearing what Trump thinks about policies that affect peoples day to day lives, when Trump wants to establish an autocracy and bury the democracy? How do any of his positions on policies matter when Trump does not, apparently along w the rest of the GOP, accept the notion of a functioning democracy? It just seems to invalidate the premise of a debate in the first place.
The issue is about whether we have a democracy or not. Unless we reconfirm the democratic framework as the underlying premise, there’s no point in debating anything else.