Donald Trump is a serial vandalizer of America’s democratic ideals and institutions. Last night, his victim was the presidential debate.
Down in the polls and obviously frustrated by events he cannot control – especially the Covid-19 pandemic – Trump was like a disturbed child acting out in school to get attention. He simply could not control himself. He could not restrain himself even for the two minutes Joe Biden was allotted to answer questions.
Instead he interrupted constantly, talking over his opponent with a steady fusillade of taunts, insults and bald-faced lies. Biden correctly called him “unpresidential,” but that doesn’t begin to describe Trump’s sickening behavior last night. Bullying, malicious, ranting incoherently, he sabotaged every attempt at rational argument.
It will be interesting to see how Trump’s legion of apologists and lickspittles try to explain away his deranged performance in Cleveland. If here are any self-respecting conservatives and Republicans left who truly venerate America’s democratic traditions, they must be feeling very queasy this morning.
If Trump lacks the self-discipline to abide by the rules of presidential debates – rules his campaign officials agreed to – there’s no point in inflicting two more of them on the American people. Neither Biden nor the media has any obligation to collude in Trump’s attempts to turn presidential debates into a tawdry theater of demagoguery and abuse.
U.S. voters already know enough about Donald Trump and Joe Biden to make an informed choice in November. The vote can’t come soon enough.
