Thursday, October 01, 2020
PMT: Worst. Debate. Ever.
Probably the best part of my Tuesday night was the dumbfounded reaction of commentators after the presidential debate, all of whom seem flabbergasted by what they had just seen. Trump tried to trigger Biden and it worked, as Biden called Trump a "clown" and said "Will you shut up, man?" Trump, meanwhile, talked over everything-- I'm confident that if they had taken a commercial break, Trump would have talked over those, too. Worse, Trump was called on to denounce white supremacists and seemed to really just not want to do that.
The whole debacle was pretty hard to watch. Poor Chris Wallace, the moderator, utterly failed in his attempts to keep things under control, and substance was avoided nearly the entire time by the combatants. It was, in the end, a poor example for America's kindergartners, puppies, and drunk teens, all of whom display more respect for norms of behavior than we saw at the debate.
In the end, it's not funny. It's just sad. And it debases our nation to have our leaders appear unable to conduct a civil conversation at a crucial time.
Our nation faces multiple crises, all of which have converged on our nation at once, it seems. If we ever needed leadership, at least in my lifetime, it is now.
And yet, here we are.
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The terrible behavior was mostly on one side or generated in response to that one side. And I, for one, hope the Americans who were thinking about voting for that one side, will reconsider and not vote for him, and if they have a bit os sense, vote for the challenger.
Mark, I wonder, what is your view of a possible "packing" (which is a loaded term) of SCOTUS? Since we've had only nine justices since 1869, and the population has increased enormously since then, it seems to make sense -- apart from politics -- to add a few justices to help the Court reflect the country. (The UK Supreme Court, e.g., has 12 judges for a population of about 68,000,000.) On the political side, the Democrats appear ready to play hardball if they get control of Congress and the White House, so adding justices will surely be on the table in 2021.
# posted by 
: 11:46 AM
: 11:46 AM
FH-- If that is going to happen, it should be pursuant to a statute that has broad bipartisan support. If it is done just to wrest control, it will lead us down yet another escalation of partisanship.
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