Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Vote Already...Geez!!

There was a Presidential debate last night, I’m told. I’ll assume that the reputations of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas are still intact. For those of you who watched it, especially those with the fortitude to make it through to the end, I salute you. If I were President, I would send each of you a $500 gift card.

There is a storm raging outside, no...not the metaphorical kind, but a real one with howling wind and sideways rain. It’s loud and mysterious and utterly fascinating to watch. There’s a high wind advisory out warning of possible 50 mph gusts. My coffee is hot, my eyes and ears wide open. It’s hard to write serious political commentary when surrounded by the splendor and fury of God’s creation. But if you guys had the stones to sit through a presidential debate, I suppose the least I could do is offer a serious opinion.

So, I didn’t watch the thing. First of all, I’m in Maine. There  may be a law against reckless endangerment of the soul up here. If not, there should be. But, I did a deep dive into the content of what was screamed by each candidate. Then I read some of the reactions of friends and strangers on Facebook. I then glanced through the reactions of various commentators, some of whom I admire, some I detest. Nothing I have read came as a surprise. In fact, anyone who expected a different debate from the one we got hasn’t been paying attention. This is who they are. This is who we have become.

I hope, for the sake of the country, that neither of these candidates agree to another debate. I think we’ve all seen enough. I don’t believe anyone’s mind was changed last night. The only purpose the debate served was to illustrate just how far we have fallen, just how removed from basic decency we have drifted. To all of you people around the world who may have tuned in, let me just say that eventually we will recover our dignity. We will overcome this insanity. Don’t write us off. Every country has episodes of disorder and chaos. We’ve survived far worse than this.

Vote already...geez!





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