Criminal Trump is clearly unfit for office
The 2024 presidential race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump reaches a pivotal point
It's been a brutal week for American democracy. President Joe Biden's surprisingly poor performance in the presidential debate has thrown many in the Democratic Party into full panic mode.
In the aftermath of the debate, it seems like every political major pundit has called for Biden to drop out of the race.
But the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer did something different:
It called on Donald Trump,
the only convicted felon running for president,
to drop out.
From an editorial headlined
"To Serve His Country, Donald Trump Should Leave the Race":
President Joe Biden’s debate performance was a disaster.
His disjointed responses and dazed look sparked calls for him to drop out of the presidential race.
But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering.
His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.
In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced.
⭐️The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.⭐️
The editorial makes an important point.
If the entire press establishment sees fit to call on Biden to drop out of the race because of a bad debate,
👉 why haven't they applied this same logic to the convicted criminal who promises to destroy American democracy and rule as an authoritarian dictator? 👈
This unbalanced approach normalizes Trump's danger.
It also gives him a significant advantage in the race.
It frames the would-be dictator's behavior as acceptable and normal
– while framing a weak debate performance as a total disqualification.
So, it's important to see an American newspaper provide such a common sense take on the situation. Read the full editorial here. And the Inquirer currently has a great subscription deal going
– $1 for six months!
– so please give them a buck if you can.
A bad debate
Let's not sugarcoat it:
Biden performed terribly in the debate.
But the issue isn't solely his age.
Like many a Democrat, Biden seemed wholly unprepared for Trump's onslaught of lies and frames.
Unfettered by the need to stick to facts or truth, Trump aimed a firehose of lies at the audience.
The CNN moderators did not provide any fact checking, which rewarded Trump's willingness to lie and gave him a big advantage.
He did not have to operate within the confines of reality.
This enabled him to confidently assert lies as facts,
making him appear strong to those who didn't know he was lying.
In addition, Trump used frames constantly.
He repeatedly brought the debate back to the topic of immigration,
regardless of the question being asked.
He hammered his chosen themes, which were designed to activate conservative ideas in the brains of tens of millions of Americans.
Unfortunately, Biden's approach couldn't compete.
He clearly came prepared to stick to his talking points and list the data points that prove his accomplishments as president.
Faced with a Trump's formidable framing ability, Biden's Enlightenment Reason approach made him look especially weak.
But let's be clear:
This is the approach Democrats have taken for decades.
They have expected facts, logic, policy and reason to win debates.
It doesn't work that way, and so we have arrived at this perilous moment in history.