Yet again, the lying, lout-mouthed Donald has flouted the conditions of his bail. The day before this writing, he doffed his (putative) gag to smear prosecutor Matthew Colangelo (and President Biden, to boot).
As if to epitomize his cult’s unofficial motto “WILL NOT COMPLY,” he’s enlisted a chorus of bootlicking surrogates. Lauren ‘Get A Room’ Boebert somehow paints his drowsy orange mug a sleeping beauty. Card-carrying sleazebag Matt Gaetz echoes some of Trump’s militant rant from J6. Perhaps worst of all, the Mammon-centric, holier-than-thou plutocrat Mike Johnson cloaks the unhinged, sacrilegious seditionist in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Sad.)
Aside to the tri-Mastered (God, Gold, and Trump) House Speaker: take your self-serving, theocratic pap elsewhere, pal.
History tends to repeat. Nearly four years ago, in Cleveland, Trump refused to comply with the ‘ironclad’ (for everyone else) rule that a debater had to show a recent, negative Covid test (or vacate the premises). In line with his malefic mocking of then President-to-Be Biden’s regular mask-wearing, Trump failed to produce such a test (likely because he was infected).
Let’s face it. In a grossly underreported blow to ‘all major party nominees created equal,’ the ostensibly non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) bestowed on Trump a free pass. (Other than sickening and perhaps killing Mr. Biden, what could possibly go wrong?)
Six days earlier, Trump had openly vowed to “get rid of the [electoral] ballots” that might not suit him. (At that mother of all “WILL NOT COMPLY” resolves, our ‘newshounds’ pretty much mewled. And shut their eyes. Shame on them.)
Did such special treatment for Trump presage J6 (and its undead, seditious aftermath)? Hmm. Do black clouds and strong winds augur a storm?
Fast forward. With debates now slated, at least three problems loom. One, marshaling tons of scientific and historical evidence, neuroscientist/strategist/pundit/author Drew Westen finds that anything like rational, formal debate has scant impact on voting behavior. Two, propping up an overtly relentless, ruthless, forked-tongued, prolifically potty-mouthed libertine into a realm of normalcy/business-as-usual cannot help our ailing body politic start to recover.
(Quick question. Why should we invite their bull into such a china shop as the debates? Speaking of mottoes, the Trump troop’s WILL NOT COMPLY efforts have made the CPD’s axiom tenuous at best; it reads “The Union and the Constitution Forever.”)
Three, the lout-mouthed Former Guy could exploit the request of his presence at the debates as a shield to enable him to remain at large, shooting off his mouth with impunity- that is, as a stay-out-of-jail-free card. (In fact, it’s hard to imagine that NOT happening.)
In 2007’s The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation, Dr. Westen ascribes blue uber-strategist Bob Shrum’s lost lots-won none record (in national races) largely to his ineluctable background as a scholastic debate wiz.
Trouble is, the political arena is no grove of academe. Better late than never, can we ditch the specious, illusory “rational person” model of voting behavior? Facing the triumph of Trump’s will, can we heed Dr. Westen’s documented (to a fare-thee-well) study of the abject failure of Dems’ diehard, irrational devotion to rationality (as epitomized by formal debate)?
To that end, deep in what looks to be our nation’s last ditch, can we (the people’s ONLY non-despotic major party) start taking names? Begin booting glutes? Kiss business-as-usual goodbye? Cancel the Trump-pumping debates? And bend to the task of pulling out all stops to strive for the survival of our beloved, vote-legitimized nation?