No Joy in Mudville

Our expectations were already low for this, and our petulant President did not disappoint.

Donald Trump demonstrated last night, at full volume, why there should be no more debates in this 2020 election cycle. It was the furthest thing from educational, uplifting, ennobling or illuminating that we could have imagined.

It wasn’t even entertaining, in the way that candidate debates can often be. It was exhausting. The only thing more depressing this morning is the deadening idea that anyone still believes there ought to be even one more of these.

Nobody won this “debate” last night. We all lost.

That 90 minutes was painfully emblematic of what has become of civility in our national politics under this joyless regime. The “Presidential Debates” of old are one more lamentable tradition that lies in tatters in the morning light.

If there must be a second debate in this cycle – and personally I’ve had enough – there must be an overhaul of the format that gives it more structure to put brakes on Trump’s ceaseless interruptions. It’s abundantly clear why he behaves in this manner: It’s a desperation at work. The bullying is all he knows and all the policy he has to offer – and it serves no one, not even him.

There was much commentary overnight that faulted the moderator Chris Wallace. But It is unfair to blame the moderator. The moderator needs one electronic tool in particular: A button or switch to kill the microphone of any uncooperative candidate. Let’s start with that.

The easy reply to this suggestion – too easy – is that the candidates and their respective negotiators would never agree to that. But the negotiations between the competing campaigns have become elaborate rounds of discussion that yielded little that truly serves the rest of us. It’s a format that aims to be fair, but produces chaos in the hands of this uncivil President.

I suspect the vaunted Commission that traditionally oversees these arrangements has outlived its timidity. No debate is preferable to one that is rendered purposeless by Trump’s constant interruption and his constant needling of his opponent.

While no one was the debate victor last night, Joe Biden to my eye did his best to help Wallace keep the discussion on track. (Biden’s best moments on the split-screen were when he just shook his head and smiled.)

No one watching at home could have heard anything helpful.

We don’t need any more of these impossible evenings.

Like the 2020 election itself, we need this thing to be over.

© Keel Hunt, 2020