I watched Tuesday night's presidential "debate." Can't say I'm glad I did. It was emotionally and physically painful. I didn't sleep well that night.
I can't read the minds of the participants. I can't look into their hearts. But I'm as sure as I can be that the behavior that turned this into such an ugly and demoralizing spectacle was intentional, calculated and strategic.
The president is desperate. He has good reason to be. It's hard to find anyone who thinks 2020 has been a good year. It's hard to find anyone who's feeling upbeat right now about what's going on in our society and how the country is doing. The president is a lot of things. He's not blind. He can see all this. That leaves him desperate.
To hold on to power, he has to do two things. The first is to invent an alternative reality and find enough buyers for what he is selling. Ending the national nightmare we're having depends on enough of us being able to see this mirage for what it is.
The second thing he has to do is make politics seem so repulsive, so painful that enough people will throw up their hands in disgust and walk away. He and his allies have used every trick in the book to suppress the vote. The way he behaved Tuesday night is another one of those tricks. He was not only trying to knock his opponent off balance with his bullying and badgering, he was aiming to shrink the electorate. Waking the country from this national nightmare depends on enough of us flocking instead of fleeing. If you haven't already voted, make a plan for doing so and how you will make sure every t is crossed and every i is dotted.
Between now and November 3, there's so much we all can do to make a difference in these elections. We're devoting a great deal of our energy to mobilizing voters by getting them excited about critically important down-ballot races in their own backyards, with special emphasis on pivot areas of our state where Obama won in 2008 and 2012 before Trump won there in 2016. We need all the help we can get.
After November 3, there is a whole lot that needs to be done to right the ship. But before turning our attention to that critical work, we have to refuse to do the two things the president wants and needs us to do. Only then can we put this bad dream behind us.
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