Alan Zendell, July 1, 2024

The country has had ten days to absorb the impact of the train wreck CNN called a debate. The shock, many would say horror of seeing President Biden wilt under the scripted avalanche of lies and dystopian fantasies thrown at him by Donald Trump has eased. At the same time, we’ve come to understand the nature of what Trump did, and that has reinforced our view of how dangerous he is.

The debate was supposed to be about policies and visions of America’s future. If there was a major failure in the Biden camp’s preparation, it was naively assuming that the other side viewed it that way. They should have known better – we all should have, and we have every right to expect more from Biden’s staff and from Biden himself.

The morning after the debate, I, like millions of Biden supporters thought his campaign had suffered a mortal blow. It always feels that way when a tornado tears through your town or the road you take to work is under water from a cataclysmic flood. But then the sun comes out, the insurance adjuster shows up, and we pick ourselves up and get to work rebuilding and restoring. Even after tragic losses, the survivors pick up the pieces and assess their priorities.

That’s where our nation is, especially the part that hoped Biden could handle the monumental tasks of campaigning and serving four more years as president. No one can know with certainty whether he can, but what is coming to the fore is the reality of the alternative. We know exactly who Donald Trump is and what he intends to do.

With a friendly Supreme Court, were he to be re-elected with majorities in both houses of Congress, there is a realistic possibility that he will bring down the institutions on which our country has depended for stability for more than 200 years. He is capable of deconstructing our democracy and undoing the advances we have made in social and economic equality. He wants to pardon the people who attempted to overthrow our government. He wants to legitimize racism and bigotry, and he would relegate women’s rights to where they were in the nineteenth century. His worship of dictators and disdain for our allies could move the Doomsday Clock to midnight as the risk of nuclear war increases.

This is not politics as usual, which itself, can be disturbing to watch. This is a slow-motion revolution whose aim is to change our representative government into an autocratic fascist-like state in which human rights are at the discretion of an insane dictator. If that sounds exaggerated, let me assure you that it’s not. Trump’s debate strategy, demonstrated how far he’s willing to go to achieve his ends. He is a ruthless narcissist with only one goal in mind: his own wealth and power. By contrast, we hear literally thousands of people around the country lauding Biden for his honesty and love of America and its people.

The contrast in personalities, values, morals and ethics isn’t secondary – it’s the point Biden should have been making from the start. We can even read that in Biden’s own words. When he said he only ran for president to protect the nation from Trump in 2020, he meant it. At 81, I ask myself every day why Biden would put himself through this ordeal again. The answer is that the alternative is surrendering to the Devil.

So, Mister President, let me suggest that when you take the debate stage in September, you do what Trump does, only with more class. Apologize to the moderators in advance for ignoring the debate rules. Then, since your staff dropped the ball so badly, let me suggest some opening remarks. Repeat them at every opportunity regardless of what question was asked. Look Trump in the eye and say:

• You are a despicable human being. You have been found guilty of sexual assault against a helpless woman and fined hundreds of millions of dollars. Your family business has essentially been a criminal operation, for which your CFO, Allan Weiselberg, is now in prison and your company was fined nearly a billion dollars. Your former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, served three years in prison for carrying out your illegal orders.
• You have personally been convicted of thirty-four felonies. With the Supreme Court failing to grant you blanket immunity, and throwing the case back to the lower courts, you have effectively delayed federal trials which could have you incarcerated for the rest of your miserable life until after the election so you can pardon yourself if you win. I promise you this, Donald. During my second term, if the courts so decree, you will see the inside of a prison cell.
• Your policies are racist. You think Nazis are fine people. You treat women as if their only purpose in life were to provide you with pleasure. You revere murderous dictators but disdain our allies. You praised Vladimir Putin for a brilliant military operation in Ukraine that was one of the worst failures in history, but slander your own generals and the military leaders of NATO. You have no respect for truth, and worst of all, you have no shame. Of all God’s creatures, only humans are capable of shame. What does that say about you?

Joe Biden is not the man he was at 40 or 50. But Franklin Roosevelt led us through the depression and the second world war while transforming our government from one that served oligarchs to one that cared about people – from a wheelchair.