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Presidential Debate 2024
For anyone who cares about continuing to live in an American democracy, the presidential debate was both heartbreaking and terrifying.
Minutes into the debate that President Biden intentionally scheduled early in the campaign to publicly refute Donald Trump’s vicious lies about his mental capacity, Biden appeared unable to focus on completing several sentences coherently.
Not only do we all remember those painful moments, but they will continue to be rebroadcast endlessly throughout the rightwing broadcast ecosystem as proof the president is lost somewhere in dementia with White House minders feeding him with a spoon.
That’s the heartbreaking part. The terrifying part is that even before the debate, Trump already was running slightly ahead of Biden in their closely divided political rematch. Trump’s constant gusher of lies and his assault on American democracy also were on full display throughout the debate, but who noticed?
Criminal Nominee
That’s not a political opinion, it’s a political fact. The Republican party has nominated a criminal felon convicted of election fraud for paying off a porn star to coverup his sleazy personal life when Republicans thought his campaign was over after voters heard him bragging about sexually assaulting women.
The only reason Trump hasn’t already been prosecuted for the most serious federal crimes he committed as president – creating the violent attack on Congress to overthrow President Biden’s election and stealing top-secret documents – are other corrupt acts he committed as president.
That included appointing lawless extremists to the U.S. Supreme Court and a Florida federal court. Both courts intentionally delayed Trump’s trials until after the presidential election so Trump can throw out his own criminal indictments if he wins.
Escape Prosecution?
It’s frightening that Trump could escape prosecution for all the death and destruction he created on Jan. 6, 2021, because Biden had a bad night. Giving Trump more lifetime court appointments could extend for decades the destruction of equal constitutional rights for all Americans based on race, gender and gender identity threatened by his Supreme Court supermajority.
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Trump fills his television appearances with such a blinding blizzard of lies moderators and opponents can’t possibly fact check Trump as fast as he can lie. CNN didn’t even try.
Biden knew exactly what he had to do. He spent a week preparing his aggressive response to cut through Trump’s lies to refocus the debate on his own fight for the constitutional rights of all Americans at a time when Trump and his corrupt courts are hellbent on returning to pre-Civil War America when freedom and equality depended upon the state where you lived.
But Biden, the fiery defender of democracy, didn’t show up until the next day at a North Carolina rally before an enthusiastic crowd of 2,000 instead of a national television audience of 50 million. In a strong voice, Biden declared he might not walk as easily or speak as smoothly as he once did. “But I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job.”
Democrats Save Democracy
Now Biden and the Democrats have to decide whether one dreadful television performance has increased the likelihood that Trump will continue to destroy democracy as America’s Vladimir Putin.
Self-appointed political realists claim it’s too late for Democrats to replace Biden. But nothing else is normal this year with Republicans nominating Trump again after he sent a rampaging mob threatening to hang Mike Pence and murder Senators and House members to stop them from certifying Biden’s victory.
Democrats are the only national political party now that cares enough about democracy to do whatever is necessary to protect it. Republicans are under the total control of a criminal would-be dictator driven only by his own personal hatred of anyone who opposes him.
Democrats will lead the fight in every national and state election to restore the constitutional rights of all Americans. In Wisconsin, one of the crucial battleground states, that means electing Biden or any other Democrat who carries his torch forward and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, another national leader in protecting constitutional rights.
That’s just the beginning. The day after the presidential election, state Democrats will begin working full-time to elect Dane County Judge Susan Crawford on April 1 to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. That election is crucial to protect the new majority on the court that finally ended 15 years of rightwing political corruption on the court.
Crawford’s opponent is former Republican Atty. Gen. Brad Schimel, a Samuel Alito wannabe. Schimel co-led with Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton other rightwing colleagues attempting to destroy the Affordable Care Act in their states after the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional. Only Schimel’s defeat by Atty. Gen. Josh Kaul in 2018 prevented him from joining another absurd Paxton lawsuit to throw the votes of Wisconsin and three other states to overturn Trump’s election.
It will take decades to repair the destruction of democracy from Trump’s single term.
