Debate

Kamala Harris won the debate with Trump. A clear winner. I hadn’t expected anything different, but I was gratified that she did well, and he didn’t.

That does not make me jubilant. The reason why is simple: roughly 50% of voters indicate they are waiting to support Trump in the election. Another 50% claim they will be supporting Harris. That is a tie. We still don’t know who will win the election.

That is not sobering. That is depressing. Half of America’s voters believe a convicted felon, a liar, a cheat, a con artist and an abuser of women. He is despicable on so many grounds. In any other time, he would be reviled and laughed out of the room.

But not in 2016, 2020 and again in 2024.

Why does he get this support? He was an awful president. He is totally unwitting in international affairs. He does not understand economics. He cannot write. He evidently doesn’t read much. Yet, he garners half of the voters.

Donald Trump is an error of mankind. I know that in my soul. A lot of other people do as well. But that alone is not the reason for my upset-ness. My trouble is understanding the people who think Trump is viable for President. They think he can lead the nation. They think he can build world peace. They think he can heal our wounds and fix problems of the people. They think…and really do not understand facts, history and common sense. Half of our nation are out of tune with our nation, its people and the role we all have to build and maintain world peace. How can that be? How can our educational systems and social order get this so very wrong?

As much as the debate proved Trump is incapable of leading the free world, our voting public is likely to return him to office. There appears to be no protection from them or him.

I am baffled. I am fearful for our democracy and way of life. 

Yes. I think this is a bad situation. But I also know that as bad as that is, we will pull through the experience one way or the other. We will survive. Our nation may be damaged, but it will survive. Times will change. Common sense will return. Our democracy will return to health.

It is that meantime that discourages me. It is the very fact that so much is at stake and in the hands of very poor thinkers. They vote. They matter. How did this come about and how could we avoid this in the future?

Harris will make a very fine President. Of that I am certain. But the truth remains that Trump could easily be returned to the Oval Office. That is a truth that baffles me.

September 13, 2024

 

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