The June 27th Biden-Trump debate was disappointing, to say the least. Biden looked as if dumbfounded by the unfiltered malice and falsity of this Trump creature. A transcript would show Biden in a different light, a decent man speaking sense and fact to a mountebank. A deeply experienced and dignified statesman faced a trained TV performer shouting polished lies. But on live TV, it’s about the performance, the show. Evolution hardwired our atavistic craving for a leader since before homo sapiens. Unfortunately for our modern world, we judge leadership according to emotional criteria formed a million years ago.
Some now say Biden must step aside for a more TV-ready candidate. Aside from the strategic silliness of their proposal, I assume some would wish Biden away for their own advantage. Mature cultures treasure the judgement and perspective of their elders, never mind arthritic walk and hoarse voice. Look at President Biden’s national and international record, including unifying NATO against the vile war criminal and Trump’s BFF, Vladimir Putin. Biden is a successful leader within any rational criteria. The real debate is whether we shall have decency, accomplishment, and the rule of law, or chaos, incompetence and corruption.
Regardless, if President Biden had rolled into the debate with a bottle of tequila and his fly open, I would not hesitate vote for him over that ignorant felon, usurper, liar, rapist, philanderer, fraudster, con man, thief, traitor and utterly amoral malignant narcissist.
Malignant narcissists can have an uncanny touch on emotional buttons of a person, an audience, or a mob. It is their super-power, able to mime any human emotion and supply timely prompts to their pawns. Hitler was said to be truly charming and humble when it suited him. I have dealt personally with a malignant narcissist in politics, but I am no expert. Read The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, by the most qualified psychologists and psychiatrists. He is literally a textbook case of malignant narcissism.
But now people don’t read. Interactive media means that the other side is acting too. The impersonal algorithms employ confirmation bias, whether to sell soap or sedition. When the content agrees with us, added info becomes true because we already agree on other things. Strong beliefs are exploitable.
My own conspiracy theory is amply documented. Since the 1970s, a loose cabal of extreme wealth has worked to degrade education, discredit science, and to capture the levers of power starting from the local, to the statehouse, to national prominence, unto corruption of the Supreme Court. Trump is a serendipitous tool of this plan, not the creator. He is indifferent to policy except as it accrues to his power.
There is not room here to describe the insidious reach of the Heritage Foundation. According to the organization’s president, “The Second American Revolution will remain bloodless––if the Left allows it to be.” More for the reading list; their Project 2025. Trump’s people are attached.
A heavily armed minority is eager to impose its will upon the unarmed majority. Any population is about 35% authoritarian. In their deepest feelings, authoritarians want a bully to make things right, for reasons religious, racist, ideological, economic, absolutist or who knows. That multitude is disperse and formless until a charismatic thug grasps their prejudices, bringing them along for his rampage. Trump has cultivated Second Amendment absolutists since at least 2016. We must defeat Trump in 2024, even knowing he will provoke violence. That terrible prospect is less frightening than the dissolution of our democracy under Project 2025.