Those Damn Suburban Neighborhoods

Here's Donald Trump at a campaign rally earlier this month in Johnstown, Pennsylvania:

"Suburban women, will you please like me?  Please.  Please.  I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?"

I've been a suburban woman for most of my life, and I'm wondering what exactly Donald Trump has saved me from, or rather, what he's saved my DAMN neighborhood from.

The coronavirus?  No.

Climate change?  No.

Failing infrastructure?  No.

Expensive health care?  No.

Rising drug prices?  No.

Right wing terrorists?  No.

Oh, that's right.  He saved my DAMN neighborhood from all those scary people of color.  Except for the fact that my WONDERFUL neighborhood is filled with people of all races, and many of us reject Trump's racist appeals.  Apparently we're not alone.  The Guardian reports that "Biden leads by 23 points among suburban women in swing states. . . and by 19 points among suburban women overall."

Meanwhile, the campaign is sending Ivanka Trump out to convince us that her father is "the people's president."  The idea is to soften his corrosive personality and policies.  She doesn't mention, of course, the 545 migrant children whose parents are missing or the 225,000 Americans dead from COVID-19. Nothing about our 32.8 million fellow citizens who lack health insurance or that children remain the poorest age group in our country. 

No, the Trumps think we're all still watching Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best.  But we've grown and embraced change.  Most of us recoil at President Trump's racist insinuations; they degrade and insult our communities.

This man needs to go.  So does his family. 

Our country cannot tolerate such hate and division.

The Power of it All

Joe Biden chose a beautiful fall day to visit here in Durham, North Carolina.  A blue sky and the sun just right, it kept us warm but not too hot.  We were a laid-back crowd, typical of this small southern city, all of us waiting to see our presidential hopeful.  Not invited to the main event--a car rally in a blocked-off parking lot--we stood along the school's drive, all of us apart from each other, trying to figure out which route Joe would take to head back to the airport.

The unmarked police cars, the motorcycles, and a side road sealed to traffic gave it away.  We figured if we waited long enough, we would see Joe's motorcade, and sure enough we did.

What struck me most of all was the power, the sheer power, of that motorcade.  The roaring motorcycles, the flashing lights, the lead cars followed by four SUVs, and multiple cars behind.  It's a heady experience seeing that kind of power, a realization that those who run our country are mighty in ways that go far beyond the ordinary.

And what a tragic mistake to have vested that extraordinary power in such a weak human being as Donald Trump.

We cannot make that mistake again.  Despite everything Trump has done to undermine our country and our standing in the world, the President of the United States is still the most powerful person on earth.  We owe it to ourselves and to each other, and to people everywhere, to do what we can to elect someone deserving of that power.  Someone who won't use that power for his own good, who won't corrupt that power into something vile, who won't treat that power like it's his personal tool.

For in the end, that power belongs rightfully to the people, we the people.  It's shared power, not authoritative power.  

Joe Biden understands this.  Donald Trump does not.

Dump the Debates, or Do Them Better

When Abraham Lincoln debated Stephen Douglas in 1858, the two men held a series of public events in seven Illinois cities that attracted "droves of citizens" across the Midwest.  The first candidate spoke for an hour; the second for an hour and a half; and the first again for thirty minutes to rebut his opponent.  The transcripts show that they spoke uninterrupted by each other, though the crowd cheered and laughed throughout.

Imagine such a debate today, where our national candidates engage in serious discourse about serious policy.  It doesn't happen.  Not when a fly on the vice president's head gets the most attention.

No, the 2020 national debates haven't been worth our time.  Not even the fly's. 

The first event between Donald Trump and Joe Biden featured a bullying president unconstrained by the moderator and too much crosstalk, while the second debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris left questions unanswered and lies unchallenged.  In both events the format didn't work: the moderators couldn't control the contenders, and the participants--especially Trump and Pence--flouted the rules established by the Commission on Presidential Debates, despite their campaigns having agreed to abide.

As soon as President Trump began speaking beyond his allotted time and interrupting Joe Biden, he should have been shut down--by either turning off his microphone or awarding extra time to his opponent.  As a matter of fact, the debate shouldn't even have been allowed to begin when Trump's family and friends in the audience removed their masks, violating the Commission's rules.  Karen Pence should have been escorted from the stage when she did the same.  Rules are rules, and the Commission needs to enforce them.

If the final debate is to go forward, and I wish it wouldn't, we need substantive change in the format.  I propose the following:

1. Ask each candidate the same questions, focused on policies and proposals, such as "Explain three specific steps you would recommend to address climate change, and, if you have none, why not?"  Substitute "climate change" with other current issues--the coronavirus, the criminal justice system, health insurance, public education--you get the idea.  

2. Give the first candidate three minutes to answer, the second candidate five minutes to answer and rebut, and the first candidate two minutes for a final rebuttal, alternating speaking order with each topic.  Display questions on the screen the entire time so that viewers can see for themselves if candidates provide answers.

3. Support the moderator by adding a timekeeper and a fact checker.  The timekeeper must have the authority and the tools to maintain control and can stop the debate if disorder breaks through. At the conclusion of each round, the fact checker will project onto a screen the most salient lies, giving thirty seconds for the contenders and audience to view.  (This proposal couldn't possibly cover Donald Trump's lies, as they're all salient, but at least it's a start.)

4. Eliminate the split screen showing the opponent's face, which distracts viewers and trivializes the debate.

Even with these proposals, the upcoming debate will still give Donald Trump free air time to spew hatred and lies, which he uses to incite violence and chaos.  The connection between his attacks on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer earlier this year and the subsequent arrest of domestic terrorists who plotted to kidnap her is one recent example. Another is the role that his continued dismissal of scientific information plays in our nation's handling of the pandemic.

The format for national debates has been problematic for years.  What's different now, though, is that Donald Trump has brought these events to a new low as an agitator and a liar.  If his tactics can't be countered on stage, we need to ask ourselves if presidential debates today are even worth having.

A Nation on Edge

The last three days have typified life under Donald Trump's presidency, one where we live-stream chaos generated by our Commander in Chief.  Even as he remains hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center, Trump somehow manages to choreograph endless uncertainty, lies, and distortions.  Those who work for him have learned their roles well, from Dr. Sean Conley who evades key medical questions, to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who continues to contradict and deceive.

From the earliest days of his presidency--when he inflated the crowd size at his inauguration--to his debate appearance last Tuesday--when he bullied and blustered his way through--he has sown confusion and doubt into our lives.  Because he incites violence in his supporters, we now worry about our safety at polling sites.  Because he courts the friendship of Vladimir Putin, we now wonder about the safety of our elections.  Because he refuses to follow the law, we now fear that he won't leave office peacefully.

Living in a state of anxiety with Trump as our president hasn't been good for our nation's health.  We all ride a daily roller coaster that has no steady operator in control.  Careening from one incident to the next, we often forget the outrage of the days before.

I resent this.  Donald Trump has intruded in my life in ways that I've never experienced before.  Yes, I disagreed with decisions made by previous presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, some of which I viewed as disastrous.  But I've never lived with the level of anxiety created by President Trump.  If I felt anxious about the state of our nation in the past, it wasn't because of the president's erratic and incompetent behavior.

I believe that Joe Biden, if elected, will restore a sense of calm in order to address the crises raging amongst us--the coronavirus, racial disparity, the economy, climate change, income inequality--which cannot be managed by an inept narcissist who foments turmoil.

We deserve a Commander in Chief, not a Commander in Chaos.