There was no winner in Trump-Biden debate, but it feels like our country lost | Opinion
There's a saying that goes, 'We get the government we deserve.' I don't know that we deserved the mess we witnessed Thursday between our past two presidents, but it's certainly what we have wrought.
Kevin S. AldridgeAmid the documented false statements and truth-stretching during Thursday night's presidential debate, Donald Trump did manage to speak at least one truth: "This shouldn't be a debate."
Trump called the first general election debate of the 2024 season a waste of time, and for once, I couldn't agree more with him. There should be no discussion today about who won the debate. There was no winner, but it sure feels like our country lost big-time.
There's a saying that goes, "We get the government we deserve." I don't know that any of us deserved the farcical mess we witnessed Thursday between our past two presidents, but it's certainly what we have wrought. And as a result, those of us who vote in November will be left to make the best of two bad choices.
Americans don't deserve that.
Biden is too old. Trump is too morally bankrupt
Thursday's train wreck of a debate showed why neither Trump nor Biden should be our next president − but for vastly different reasons. Trump did nothing to disabuse non-MAGA voters of the fact that he's an untruthful, self-absorbed, morally bankrupt, convicted felon, despite his protestation that he "didn't sleep with a porn star." And the 81-year-old Biden failed miserably to ease the public's anxiety about his age and stamina with a bumbling, weak-voiced and, at times, incoherent performance that made him look far too old and feeble.
There were many reports following the debate about Democrats being in a panic over Biden's poor showing, and they should be. But the reality is, we should all feel a sense of dread. When the two leading candidates for the most powerful job in the world are arguing like schoolboys about who has the better golf swing, our country is in dire straits. Who cares about their golf handicap when Americans are worried about inflation, access to reproductive health care and the crisis at our southern border?
Biden should have done the honorable thing and not sought reelection. Not because he's done the "terrible job" Trump says he has as president, but because, frankly, he's too old. That's not ageism; that's just a fact − one that was painfully on display for the nation to see Thursday. Biden was undeniably shaky from the start of the debate and looked and sounded every day of his age. Father Time is undefeated, and right now, he's got Biden against the ropes.
Trump has no honor and should have sat this election out, too. During the debate, Trump said he'd much rather be someplace else doing other things instead of running for president. There are more than 81 million Americans who probably preferred the same. The notion that a convicted felon − or as Biden put it in one of the few zingers of the night, someone "with the morals of an alley cat" − could be president should sicken us all and is a dark reflection of how far our morals and values have sunken.
The "double haters," that group of voters who don't like Biden or Trump, probably grew exponentially after this debate. A voter from a focus group convened by one of the cable TV news networks summed it up this way: When he thinks of voting for Trump, it's "Oh hell no," and when it comes to Biden, it's "Oh no." Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who couldn't get a spot on the debate stage, might have gained the most.
Tough conversations and choices ahead
There will be lots of chatter in the coming days about whether Democrats should encourage Biden to step aside. I've long argued Republicans should be having the same conversation about Trump. A sizable number of Americans want different candidates for president, but I doubt that will happen, barring some unexpected circumstance that would force one of them to drop out of the race.
Both Trump and Biden's egos have led us to this point − each believing no one else could beat the other. Both political parties have failed us by refusing to have the difficult, but needed conversation with their standard bearer about their unfitness to serve again. And "We the People" are reaping what we have sown through our tribalism, anger, tolerating the intolerable and making ridiculous excuses for our chosen candidate's shortcomings and ethical and moral lapses.
We've dug ourselves into this hole. How much deeper and darker will it get by Election Day?
Opinion and Engagement Editor Kevin S. Aldridge can be reached at kaldridge@enquirer.com. X, formerly known as Twitter: @kevaldrid.
