His debate performance was abysmal, and I don't think anyone believes it was a one-off, something peculiar that happened to him that one night. Since then there have been lots of excuses--he had a cold, though he performed quite well the next morning when reading off a teleprompter--he was tired from two-weeks of international travel, over a week earlier, he doesn't sleep enough, he works too late, yadda yadda yadda.
His aides have lots of excuses. Too many. And on one believes them. Nor should they.
Now Biden's message has been reduced to,
"I'm not demented, I hope you know. No matter what you saw."
Pretty much every excuse he and his advisors can conjure up. Except the one we all know--he's 81, he's getting old, too old, and he's lost his mental acuity and fitness. For the most taxing job in the world.
So not only do we have to worry if he can best the mentally ill Trump (he can't), we have to worry if he's even capable of being president now in his health condition.
I think it's obvious Biden will lose this November--and against a candidate any intelligent person should be able to dice and slice into tiny meaty bits.
Furthermore, I think it's clear Kamala Harris will lose as well, if she replaces Biden. She isn't a strong person (viz. she comes across as weak), speaks in meaningless "word salads," and hasn't accomplished anything as vice-president. Or as senator, as far as I can tell.
Democrats are giving the presidency away because they are too stuck-in-the-mud to really want victory. They talk about saving democracy, then act as if that isn't an important value at all.
It's all extremely depressing.
Think Trump's Supreme Court isn't utterly remaking America? Then give Trump another four years reshaping the executive and administrative state.
I'm trying to pretend that I don't care anymore. After all, what can I do? Nothing really. Never have been able to. My vote means nothing. Especially in Oregon, which will obviously vote blue (that is, for the Democratic candidate). No way will the state's measly 8 electoral votes go to Trump. The almighty Constitution awards us (seems appropriate) eight votes out of 538 total. Here individuals don't vote, states do. Oregon is a state neither party even bothers to contest, because they're sure how it will vote in the electoral college.
They don't need my vote. It's even worse for those here who vote for Trump. Red votes haven't mattered in Oregon for decade. Not even at the state level. Only Democrats can rule here, because of the big cities to the west of the Cascade Mountains and the relatively few people (~20%) who live in the desert West.
No wonder some of them want to secede and join Idaho. (Reddest of nearly any state.)
The electoral college is about the worst feature of the Constitution the benighted amazing all-wise wealthy infallable "founders" imposed on this country.
Worse, it can never, ever be changed--because it gives a disproportionate amount of votes to rural states, who thus will never every vote to remove it from the Constitution. It's shit we're stuck with--just like the fucking second amendment.
Red states love guns. Can kill groundhogs in farmer's fields. (My dad did this, carrying a rifle and sawhorse in his trunk. Never picked the groundhogs up and ate them. Just left them to rot out there.) Can kill anyone who steps one foot onto your property.
Red states have significantly higher gun death rates than blue states. They couldn't care less. (Really.)
Voters in Wyoming have over three times the voting power as someone in California.
I have to say, I feel less and less invested in America every year. I can no longer make it here--I'm too old, no one will hire me, I'll never be able to retire. It's only about money now, and if you have it you can lead a good life here, and if you don't you settle for scraps. It all, and only, about how much money you make. The realistic threshold seems to be about $100k/year, although the average household income is about $75k/year. Even average is pretty dismal now--and that's only if you're in a couple. If you're single, for whatever reason, America doesn't really want you at all.
Hoping I can move somewhere in the next year or two, though at this rate I'll never be able to. If I can, it will only be to someplace like the Philippines or Panama or Vietnam. And no matter where, I won't have health insurance. US govt won't pay.
Anyway I would have to work until the day I die. Or at least the day before I die. I'm hoping I can get the last day off.
It's my fault really. I should have stayed in a corporate cubicle and worked until I was 58. I'd be at least $3M richer now, maybe $4M. I just had to play the corporate game, toe their line, pretend their values were my values. Lately I think I was an idiot for not doing that, and thinking instead I could go off on my own and do something I found interesting and something I thought mattered.
(It didn't matter.)
I think the best way to express my opinion is to not vote for anyone for President. That best gets my message across. Even if it's infinitesimal. No one will notice or care anyway.
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Biden, mouth agape at last week's debate:
4 comments:
It is shameful that he continues to run.
The little I saw of the debate looked like two of my geriatric uncles at their retirement village's lawn bowls club having an argument that started off over who brought the last round of drinks and finished with who was grandma's favourite son.
It's appalling that America has two old men running for president, one old man in denial of his early-stage dementia and the other old man a despicable human being.
The signal that sends to me, if not the rest of the world, is an indictment of the American political system and of American values.
Vote for an independent candidate, at least. He might not win, but at least you show that you care about democracy, just not the major candidates, and what direction you want politics to move in.
With age I have come to believe more and more in the Peter principle as applied to humanity at large. We've reached our incompetence level.
I'm with Thomas.
I used to vote exclusively for the green Party of Canada, even though there was no hope of winning. The Greens took enough of the Liberal and NDP vote that these larger parties had to respond.
When Trudeau ran for office, he adopted the Green party platform in its entirety. At that point there was no reason not to vote Liberal.
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