Note: This was written, well, after the third presidential debate, but I never actually published it until now. Some of the things I wrote are kind of hilarious with the hindsight knowledge of how the election turned out.
Where to even start.
Chris Wallace was the best moderator of the three debates, at least in the sense that he asked the best questions. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to keep the candidates on track any better than the others, or keep them from cross-talking or keep the audience from cheering. He also seemed really nervous. (Not that I blame him.)
Speaking of the audience, I watched the debate on the C-SPAN web site, and I did not hear the audience at all. I thought they were behaving perfectly until Wallace suddenly turned around to scold them for no apparent reason. I can only assume that C-SPAN didn’t have microphones on the audience or turned down the faders when the audience cheered.
But when I watched playbacks of debate moments on the CNN after-show, I could clearly hear the audience reactions. My only point here is that C-SPAN is definitely the best place to watch debates. Other networks apparently don’t mind the circus atmosphere.
I noticed that, before the debate, there was no announcement of the candidate’s spouses, so Bill Clinton did not walk out and shake hands with the Trump clan as he’d done in the first two debates. The candidates themselves did not shake hands before or after the debate, an apt analogy for the state of things in America.
I observed an interesting phenomenon on Twitter: I watched three different account streams during the debate (I have different accounts for different interests). Not surprisingly, the majority of the people that I follow, who have expressed an opinion, are against Trump. But I noticed that Twitter was unusually quiet through the first half hour or forty-five minutes of the debate. There were no Twitter memes flying around mocking Trump’s performance. During that time I also noticed that the debate was surprisingly calm and, well, presidential.
Then at some point Controversial Trump appeared, and you could almost feel the collective whooshing sigh of relief from Twitter. (I think it was around the time he ranted about puppets.) “Oh thank God,” the Internet seemed to say. “He finally said something we can mock!” Suddenly the jokes ramped up and everyone was tweeting and re-tweeting silly memes. Everyone relaxed, apparently certain that Trump had imploded, and this time–surely this time, more than any previous time–no undecideds could even think about voting for that crazy wackadoodle.
The bombshell of the evening, as usual, belonged to Trump. Regarding whether or not he’ll accept the results of the election: “I’m going to keep you in suspense.” All the pundits, who for some inexplicable reason are still treating this election with a dignity it does not deserve, freaked right the hell out about that. Except the Trump surrogates, who reminded us that Al Gore did it first, because that’s always the last line of defense in any argument: “Don’t blame me, you started it.”
Personally, I just think Trump was trying to drive that “no, you’re the puppet” madness out of the headlines. Which he did.
Here’s the thing. Regardless of what he says, he has no choice but to accept the results of the election. The Constitution is pretty clear about this process.
And as if casting doubt on democracy itself wasn’t enough, in a final attempt to alienate every single possible woman voter in the country, he tacked on that “nasty woman” line. I just can’t imagine what he might have been thinking there. The kind of person who would cheer about that is already solidly in his camp.
On a more substantive level, my mouth dropped open with amazement when Wallace asked Clinton about a no-fly zone in Syria and whether she would fire on Russian planes. It was a real question about a real issue! And my mouth further dropped open when Clinton completely dodged giving an answer. Welcome to Cold War 2.0, now completely out in the open for everyone to see. Naturally I didn’t see a single tweet about that.
And if you think you can get us out of World War III by voting for Trump, don’t forget that Mike Pence will also be shooting down Russian planes while Trump is building his wall. It’s a no-win situation when it comes to Syria and Russia.
Here’s how cynical I am about modern politics, by the way: Way back during the primaries, when Donald Trump started getting traction, I thought to myself, “You know, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the Clintons hired Trump to make it easier for Hillary to win.” It still wouldn’t surprise me to learn that some shady back room deal was struck between them. Realistically I’d put the chances of that at around 2%. But wouldn’t that make a fantastic ending to a dramatic version of these events? After Hillary’s in office, we cut to a scene in an empty, darkened garage in the middle of the night. Trump stands there whistling with his hands in his pockets. Hillary’s face appears from the shadows. “It worked,” Hillary says. “Don’t forget what you promised,” Trump says, and walks away whistling. Fade to black.
Anyway, at this point I would say the election’s a lock for Hillary, unless something really, really strange happens in the next few weeks. Or, you know, nobody shows up at the polls except Trump supporters. Or if there’s a secret conspiracy by Trump supporters to answer poll questions incorrectly. (I think that would be cool actually. I think it would be fun to teach kids in school to always answer poll questions with a blatant lie.)
And what will four years of a Clinton presidency bring us? Well, probably nothing. I don’t exactly know how they’ll be able to get away with it, but I imagine Republicans will try to block Supreme Court confirmations for the entire four years of her presidency. (I anticipate she will only last one term.) I imagine Republicans will block any attempt at passing legislation for the next four years. There won’t be any gun legislation, or healthcare legislation, or climate change legislation, or immigration legislation. Just four years in a frozen state.
By the way, according to my highly scientific prediction process, Trump is clearly winning Virginia, because I see four Trump signs on the way to and from work, and still none for Hillary. One house actually put a second Trump sign in their yard after the first debate.
I should also mention that I pass a billboard going to work every day which mentions Gary Johnson.
(I don’t really think Trump is winning Virginia. Based on polling it looks like Clinton will win it handily.)
Speaking of Gary Johnson, it concerns me how much pressure the comedy shows are putting on people not to vote for a third party. (Because of that fable that if only Ralph Nader hadn’t gotten so many votes in Florida, Al Gore would have won 2000.) Almost all of the late night shows have done bits about how horrible Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are. Not that I exactly disagree with that, but you know things are getting bad in this country when even the comedians are part of the grand two-party conspiracy.
It also concerns me to see how vehemently people on the Internet are personalizing this election. I have witnessed this most often in the form of previously-abused women casting votes against Trump as if they are striking a blow against their abusers. I understand and sympathize with that viewpoint, and I know there’s nothing anyone could say to change that opinion, but I don’t think that’s going to help the country in the long run.
Incidentally, I read an interesting article in The Guardian comparing Donald Trump to Silvio Berlesconni, former prime minster of Italy. The Italian state survived some 20 years of that guy, with no nuclear wars started, no civil wars started, and no Nazism. Just 20 years of people laughing at Italy.
