The Washington punditocracy, represented
by the likes of Joe Scarborough, Claire McCaskill, most of the MSNBC and CNN regulars
(with the notable exception of Mika Brzezinski and Lawrence O’Donnell), and the
New York Times Editorial Board are having a field day expressing
personal sorrow while throwing President Joe Biden under the bus less than
twenty-four hours after Biden’s poor debate performance. Their logic seems to be that a second Trump
administration is so unthinkable that we need to shoot the, admittedly
imperfect, messenger Joe Biden to solve the problem.
The problem, however, is Donald Trump, not
Joe Biden. And yet, the punditocracy
consistently goes easy on Trump pleading that his crimes, his immorality, and
his lack of veracity are so widely recognized that we just take them for
granted. Biden, however, should have
risen above that and called out Trump’s every lie and act of malfeasance during
their debate in such a way that would suddenly open everyone’s eyes to the
monster that is Donald Trump. Biden
should have done the punditocracy’s job.
He should have done our job.
Because he didn’t do that for us, we just throw Biden under the bus and look
for someone else to take on Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump is accorded the dignity
and honor of a Presidential candidate and given an equal place on the debate stage
with the President of the United States even though:
·
He
attempted to subvert the legal outcome of a Presidential election that he
clearly lost.
·
He
incited an insurrection that led to the death or injury of law enforcement
officers who were defending the Capitol and Members of Congress.
·
He
deliberately selected Supreme Court Justices who would deprive women of a right
held for a half century to choose their own health care in partnership with
their doctors.
·
He
stole and illegally retained highly sensitive classified material that, because
of the level of classification, would likely put Americans at risk for their
lives if disclosed.
·
He
openly embraced foreign dictators despite warnings from his professional
intelligence advisors of the potential harm to national security that would
result.
·
He
undermined our alliances, threatening NATO members that he would sacrifice them
to Russian aggression if they “didn’t pay their bills.”
·
He
incompetently managed the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to the
extent that the United States ranks second in number of deaths per 100,000
people among the major nations.
·
He
is a pathological liar.
·
He
is a sociopath.
·
He
is a narcissist.
·
He
is without question totally unsuited to be President.
And yet, we set him equal to the sitting
President when he should have been watching the debate from a jail cell. The punditocracy throws the sitting President
under the bus while arguing that Trump had “one of his best debate performances.” If this becomes the narrative going forward
then Trump will be reelected not because of Biden’s poor debate performance but
because we (guided by the punditocracy) made the monster that is Trump into an
acceptable Presidential candidate.
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