Donald Trump’s incoherent rants this past week suggest he needs an intervention rather than a debate. So why is the media perpetuating the idea that it will be a “defining moment” for Kamala Harris?
Last night one of my medical school classmates wrote; "I believe a number of participants in the Cornell class zoom meeting are dropping out since the meeting has now become a platform for left-wing progressive extremists. I find no evidence of moderation whatsoever. I am not a Trump supporter, but I believe there are good values on both sides of the aisle. "
I could not help but answer:
I admit I was shocked getting your email about extreme left-wing progressive extremists..which I suppose is the latest version of calling someone a communist or a socialist. To think my disaffected classmates, all successful doctors, are blind to what is happening to our country:
The greed, the racism, the tolerance for poverty and mass shootings to get tax cuts and accumulate more wealth, is unconscionable. What can possibly be good on Trump’s side? Even if he weren’t failing mentally, his ignorance and mendacity are unbounded. To think any American would want to destroy the government and the constitution while supporting the attack on the rule of law, the cruelty of mass deportations, the vendetta on political opponents and courtroom officials, and on and on. Do we really want to support Putin rather than NATO?
I have to tell you I’m even more extreme than that. Do you realize the price we as a nation have paid to support racism throughout all aspects of our society? We have the best hi tech medicine in the world but we’re 91st in the overall healthcare…because we’ve fought every thing that doesn’t make doctors and Big Pharm richer…plus we don’t want to help blacks and all those poor whites. We have some of the best universities in the world but our education system is so poor we rank with Outer Mongolia. We are the only nation in the world to value guns and the rights of gun owners over the lives and safety of our children. When I bought a 50 year old boat, I had to register it in person at the courthouse within 3 days, but not guns.
Even the misguided attack on reproductive rights is about race. Evangelicals were ok with rare, safe legal abortion for 7 years after Roe, until after the IRS reversed the tax exempt status of Bob Jones University for not admitting blacks. Then they looked for an issue to elect Republicans…So abortion is about not about the unborn, it’s about not having to go to school with blacks. Hence the private religious schools or home schooling. The white Christian church not only persecuted gays, but abandoned their own children when they came home to die of AIDS, because AIDS meant they were gay. In addition, no white Christian church ever denounced lynching in the more than fifty years it went on and ostracized anyone who did. The white Christian church is no more about Jesus.
Alabama where I have lived for more than 50 years is proud of having the worst education, and most guns, but then these are the people who supported Jim Crow and convict labor in all aspects of the society. Mass incarceration exploded since Nixon started using drug use to lock up blacks, etc.
For too long we have failed to face the price we pay as a nation for not confronting racism..and maybe misogyny. Kamala Harris has plans to right some of the wrongs….and hopefully get big money out of medicine and politics, so we can attract more dedicated professionals, not just those out to make big bucks. I remember when we were younger the inspiring letters from some of our dedicated classmates…..
Hope you will decide to participant with this dangerous left-wing radical progressive. You might learn something, and teach me something as well!
You’re an admirable person to write back to your classmate. It’s hard to know what the result will be. Keep me informed, please! I’m very interested in the possibilities of bridging these divides. What kinds of conversations have you all been having in your zoom? Did she/he go on to say what “good” she/he sees on “both sides”?
They have not seen any stop or progress to stop the greed the poverty the mass shootings and especially the WARS. And most of them if they went to public school were terrified every daY, AND TERRIFIED OF A Future that even has Trump on the Ballot - I think that is what they see as too liberal - way to liberal to have a maniac even able to run once but especially NOT AGAIN
These are young people who see the United States Not stopping to horrific Wars, the First President they knew was Probably Barack Obama and then about 8 years later they are 15 and all in for Bernie only to see the Democratic Party reject him, and lots of good policy.
When a young voter is not in the workforce and seeing their debt grow and job prospects dwindle, they will probably stay home. Not one of us can honeslty say that we have fair and honest democratic elections.
If we did, no candidate of Donald Trump would be Elligible to run.
Remeber the youth in the 64 election with LBJ and the vietnam war, the best campaign ad, and then the most generous and honest building up of americans out of poverty and back to civial rights and voting rights. If that took 100 years..well I dont expect that we can progress very fast when the fied who attack a Federal building and definitely did not try to stop it is again an option for president. That is despicable.
if no one is driving the boat- I think the answer for the student is that liberal to them is reactionary to trump - we know it is not - however if you are seeing it from thier perspective - mayube it is too much.
I just watched the debate and I'm so giddy!!! Wasn't it amazing!!!! I liked her after 2020 campaign, I really liked her after DNC a few weeks ago, but now I feel like I could love her until the end of time!! It was so healing. It was everything I've felt and wanted to say for so many years. She was sharp, smart, savvy, hilarious, composed, focused, targeted, personal, the way she looked right at Trump as she stated the truth about his presidency and his character, and straight into the camera to address us about the most important and emotional issues, the way she laughed at Trump and he never recovered, the way she said, "you ain't running against old Joe, you runnin' agin me," (I paraphrased). I knew she could handily beat him at a "debate," what was so frustrating prior to the debate was knowing that it wouldn't matter how well she did, sexism would only hear a female voice and so turn a deaf ear, but now who cares how much they (Fix News and the mysoginists) try to pretend she "lost" she obviously fucking outmaneuvered him 8 bloody ways to Sunday. God I've never cared so much about politics. Who am I????!!! 🩵💙🩵💙
You have no idea how much I count on your pieces as a reality check. I watched a segment on "CBS Sunday Morning." Ted Koppel wandered through a Wisconsin Fair (hog races, fried pickles, etc). He asked various people their thoughts on the upcoming election, etc. There was a white older couple who were T*mp supporters.. He asked the woman "What does 'woke' mean?" She answered. "I don't know, but I don't like it." He repeated, as if in disbelief, but trying to stay neutral, "you don't know what it is, but you don't like it?" She searched her brain for a moment, and then came up with...."Judgy!" "That's what it means! "Judgy!"
Several T supporters were asked about their choice "I mean, I don't LIKE him, but I don't care about his personal life. I don't have to like him. I think he'd be a stronger leader." Another: "I don't have to LIKE the man." I know intellectually that I need to steel myself against the media's immorality and carelessness, but I'm having trouble getting back in touch with the hope and joy I felt watching the DNC. Help!!!!
Yeah I saw that too. The only way to keep ANY of that joy alive is to ignore the Trump supporters. They are a lost cause. As for the media, I feel the same as you do. I suggest some fantasizing about Trump having a meltdown at the debate that they CAN’T normalize. And remember Liz and Dick Cheney. There could still be some major happenings among the “moderate” GOP. Oh yeah…and come here to watch the debate with me! That will help!!
Beautifully written and spot on, Susan. She can’t let herself get distracted. Articulate a positive vision and let hem self-immolate. Maybe a few, “I have no idea what you just” like observations would be worthwhile.
Thank you Mark! I agree with your strategy suggestions. Calmly calling out his incoherence would be delicious. “I have no idea what you just said”: I can almost imagine her face as she says something like that!
As a reader who prefers Trump to his party (my party) appointed and hand selected opponent Kamala, I enjoyed your well written and argued essay, and will forward to my Trump hating friends as it will make their day, though confuse them at the same time. Not because of your writing, which was clear and persuasive, but because my Trump hating friends think anything sent by a Trump supporter must be attacked or questioned. But you make many good points about Trump, and why not make my Trump hating friends happy? I can't think of a good reason. The confusion part is a byproduct, something I can't really help.
Old White men disconnected from the lives of average people running for President.
The SAME useless formula:
Old White men disconnected from the events of average people running for President.
The SAME useless formula:
Old White men clueless to the lives and events of average people running for President.
How has the SAME useless formula guided America through the unknown horizons of the 21st Century?
Like trying to use DOS to running complex computer programs .....
The SAME useless formula has NOT created long lasting paradigms appropriate for the challenges of the 21st Century. Like how many public schools are STILL not teaching the accurate history of America because of the complaints and worries of the many parents (mostly White) who are just as clueless as the Old White men running for President until Joe Biden finally saw the light and stepped out of the race for President coming in less than three months.
Why are so many Americans SO CONVINCED that the tired unimaginative status quo will rise to the occasion and bring America into the promises of the 21st Century when the tired unimaginative status quo seek only to honor itself versus the average person who struggles to maintain a roof over their heads LET ALONE provide for a family of even TWO?
By focusing on the cult of personalities (harris, trump) and avoiding to confront the true problems of America (Education, Poverty, Poor Health Care, Guns and Gun Violence, Failing Energy Grid, Homelessness, Rising Drug Problems, Crumbling Infrastructure), the decline of America continues to gather more momentum with each passing week and month and years.
If only I was a journalist, I know exactly what question I would put to both of them.
"In the "Welcome to Medicare" physical, Medicare approves having the patient take a standard test for cognition. Please hand your wristwatch to my trusted assistants, they will give it back to you before the next question. Take the notepad and pen provided to you on your podum and draw the face of a clock. Put all the numbers properly around the dial and draw the hands to show the time to be 3:40. Sign your work. You have three minutes, and you must show your finished result to the camera. Have you turned in your watches? OK, GO"
More than anything I need to see this. Can Trump even draw a clock?
Amen! For God's sake it's so frustrating that hardly anyone is talking about what's actually happening. He's demented or unwell and he's going to "debate" someone who's healthy, smart, eloquent, and sharp as a whip?? Please!!!
The vast majority of the American citizenship is undereduacated and contolled and consumed with media. They are so afraid of the RIGHTS - which are non existant because they can be taken away. in America. 100 years after the civil war LBJ went All the Way just to help stop Racisim and segregation in the south, and to keep citizens of the south from horrible acts used to stop minorities from casting votes. That has not been very long in the generational politic of americans.
Young Americans who are much more tolerant are angry about WAR as in the 60's and do not think either party is worth voting for, and possibly they have good reason not to trust the ADULTS in American for not only electing but allowing a person with the lack of qualifications to get a job a McDonalds to become president. They read and they learn and they know what other countries are doing right. Few of them drink or smoke and many are struggling to find work and are burdened with enormous student debt, thankfully Biden is working to help with that. State universities cost as much as Harvard and elite Private Universities did in the late 1990s.
It is an impossible situation for anyone to get their head around, and the3 very least ANY AMERICAN must expect is to have more involvement in the choices of leadership and policy than money, often their money given in hope of winning an election every 4 years that may or may not take away the most common and decent human rights Americans have.
When Gun violence is rampant and poverty and lack of education, lack of skilled workmanship, a country that has learned to define a person by what the do for a living and how much they make what car they drive and which guns they own.
Thankfully it seems it is not a majority, however, the reactionary vangaurd that brutally attacks our rights as human beings are providing more fuel to the NRA and Big pharma who will elect of course the candidate who will bolster their money bags. If we outlaw lobbying and treat it as a high crime and actually hand out punishments, maybe we will make progress.
I hope that this brilliant team of Kamala Harris and TIm Walz will be able to make great changes in education and white collar crime prosecution. Then possibly in 100 years we may see a country that is rid of racism - even in the state of Mississippi.
Perhaps adopting the LBJ campaign ad with the little girl and atomic bomb with a hint of putin in there would make voting citizens think about the greater good for a moment. Not just Trumps promise to make them rich and smart like him - I think that is his policy?
If I was one election from casting my first vote and I saw donald trump win in 2016, when the first president I knew was Barack Obama - and that was when I was 7 in second grade? I think I might feel much worse than I do as someone who was in second grade during the carter administration. These are what the children of the Obama era know - nothing is real, they have always had school shooters., guilty people really can get away with lots of things. It is an uphill climb, but I hope the campaign will focus on the young voter as well, and realize where they are coming from.
Becuase I do believe most over 50 years olds and maybe 40 year olds are seeing the clear choice. I worry about5 the youth, and them just not voting becuase Biden wont stop the Wars.
Last night one of my medical school classmates wrote; "I believe a number of participants in the Cornell class zoom meeting are dropping out since the meeting has now become a platform for left-wing progressive extremists. I find no evidence of moderation whatsoever. I am not a Trump supporter, but I believe there are good values on both sides of the aisle. "
I could not help but answer:
I admit I was shocked getting your email about extreme left-wing progressive extremists..which I suppose is the latest version of calling someone a communist or a socialist. To think my disaffected classmates, all successful doctors, are blind to what is happening to our country:
The greed, the racism, the tolerance for poverty and mass shootings to get tax cuts and accumulate more wealth, is unconscionable. What can possibly be good on Trump’s side? Even if he weren’t failing mentally, his ignorance and mendacity are unbounded. To think any American would want to destroy the government and the constitution while supporting the attack on the rule of law, the cruelty of mass deportations, the vendetta on political opponents and courtroom officials, and on and on. Do we really want to support Putin rather than NATO?
I have to tell you I’m even more extreme than that. Do you realize the price we as a nation have paid to support racism throughout all aspects of our society? We have the best hi tech medicine in the world but we’re 91st in the overall healthcare…because we’ve fought every thing that doesn’t make doctors and Big Pharm richer…plus we don’t want to help blacks and all those poor whites. We have some of the best universities in the world but our education system is so poor we rank with Outer Mongolia. We are the only nation in the world to value guns and the rights of gun owners over the lives and safety of our children. When I bought a 50 year old boat, I had to register it in person at the courthouse within 3 days, but not guns.
Even the misguided attack on reproductive rights is about race. Evangelicals were ok with rare, safe legal abortion for 7 years after Roe, until after the IRS reversed the tax exempt status of Bob Jones University for not admitting blacks. Then they looked for an issue to elect Republicans…So abortion is about not about the unborn, it’s about not having to go to school with blacks. Hence the private religious schools or home schooling. The white Christian church not only persecuted gays, but abandoned their own children when they came home to die of AIDS, because AIDS meant they were gay. In addition, no white Christian church ever denounced lynching in the more than fifty years it went on and ostracized anyone who did. The white Christian church is no more about Jesus.
Alabama where I have lived for more than 50 years is proud of having the worst education, and most guns, but then these are the people who supported Jim Crow and convict labor in all aspects of the society. Mass incarceration exploded since Nixon started using drug use to lock up blacks, etc.
For too long we have failed to face the price we pay as a nation for not confronting racism..and maybe misogyny. Kamala Harris has plans to right some of the wrongs….and hopefully get big money out of medicine and politics, so we can attract more dedicated professionals, not just those out to make big bucks. I remember when we were younger the inspiring letters from some of our dedicated classmates…..
Hope you will decide to participant with this dangerous left-wing radical progressive. You might learn something, and teach me something as well!
Sumter Carmichael Coleman
You’re an admirable person to write back to your classmate. It’s hard to know what the result will be. Keep me informed, please! I’m very interested in the possibilities of bridging these divides. What kinds of conversations have you all been having in your zoom? Did she/he go on to say what “good” she/he sees on “both sides”?
They have not seen any stop or progress to stop the greed the poverty the mass shootings and especially the WARS. And most of them if they went to public school were terrified every daY, AND TERRIFIED OF A Future that even has Trump on the Ballot - I think that is what they see as too liberal - way to liberal to have a maniac even able to run once but especially NOT AGAIN
These are young people who see the United States Not stopping to horrific Wars, the First President they knew was Probably Barack Obama and then about 8 years later they are 15 and all in for Bernie only to see the Democratic Party reject him, and lots of good policy.
When a young voter is not in the workforce and seeing their debt grow and job prospects dwindle, they will probably stay home. Not one of us can honeslty say that we have fair and honest democratic elections.
If we did, no candidate of Donald Trump would be Elligible to run.
Remeber the youth in the 64 election with LBJ and the vietnam war, the best campaign ad, and then the most generous and honest building up of americans out of poverty and back to civial rights and voting rights. If that took 100 years..well I dont expect that we can progress very fast when the fied who attack a Federal building and definitely did not try to stop it is again an option for president. That is despicable.
if no one is driving the boat- I think the answer for the student is that liberal to them is reactionary to trump - we know it is not - however if you are seeing it from thier perspective - mayube it is too much.
I just watched the debate and I'm so giddy!!! Wasn't it amazing!!!! I liked her after 2020 campaign, I really liked her after DNC a few weeks ago, but now I feel like I could love her until the end of time!! It was so healing. It was everything I've felt and wanted to say for so many years. She was sharp, smart, savvy, hilarious, composed, focused, targeted, personal, the way she looked right at Trump as she stated the truth about his presidency and his character, and straight into the camera to address us about the most important and emotional issues, the way she laughed at Trump and he never recovered, the way she said, "you ain't running against old Joe, you runnin' agin me," (I paraphrased). I knew she could handily beat him at a "debate," what was so frustrating prior to the debate was knowing that it wouldn't matter how well she did, sexism would only hear a female voice and so turn a deaf ear, but now who cares how much they (Fix News and the mysoginists) try to pretend she "lost" she obviously fucking outmaneuvered him 8 bloody ways to Sunday. God I've never cared so much about politics. Who am I????!!! 🩵💙🩵💙
SHE WAS EVERYTHING. (And I’ve never used that expression before.)
You have no idea how much I count on your pieces as a reality check. I watched a segment on "CBS Sunday Morning." Ted Koppel wandered through a Wisconsin Fair (hog races, fried pickles, etc). He asked various people their thoughts on the upcoming election, etc. There was a white older couple who were T*mp supporters.. He asked the woman "What does 'woke' mean?" She answered. "I don't know, but I don't like it." He repeated, as if in disbelief, but trying to stay neutral, "you don't know what it is, but you don't like it?" She searched her brain for a moment, and then came up with...."Judgy!" "That's what it means! "Judgy!"
Several T supporters were asked about their choice "I mean, I don't LIKE him, but I don't care about his personal life. I don't have to like him. I think he'd be a stronger leader." Another: "I don't have to LIKE the man." I know intellectually that I need to steel myself against the media's immorality and carelessness, but I'm having trouble getting back in touch with the hope and joy I felt watching the DNC. Help!!!!
Yeah I saw that too. The only way to keep ANY of that joy alive is to ignore the Trump supporters. They are a lost cause. As for the media, I feel the same as you do. I suggest some fantasizing about Trump having a meltdown at the debate that they CAN’T normalize. And remember Liz and Dick Cheney. There could still be some major happenings among the “moderate” GOP. Oh yeah…and come here to watch the debate with me! That will help!!
Beautifully written and spot on, Susan. She can’t let herself get distracted. Articulate a positive vision and let hem self-immolate. Maybe a few, “I have no idea what you just” like observations would be worthwhile.
Thank you Mark! I agree with your strategy suggestions. Calmly calling out his incoherence would be delicious. “I have no idea what you just said”: I can almost imagine her face as she says something like that!
Me too. I hope she does something like that!
As a reader who prefers Trump to his party (my party) appointed and hand selected opponent Kamala, I enjoyed your well written and argued essay, and will forward to my Trump hating friends as it will make their day, though confuse them at the same time. Not because of your writing, which was clear and persuasive, but because my Trump hating friends think anything sent by a Trump supporter must be attacked or questioned. But you make many good points about Trump, and why not make my Trump hating friends happy? I can't think of a good reason. The confusion part is a byproduct, something I can't really help.
I love it when disagreement leaves room for civility…and even joviality! Thanks, Steve!
The SAME useless formula:
Old White men disconnected from the lives of average people running for President.
The SAME useless formula:
Old White men disconnected from the events of average people running for President.
The SAME useless formula:
Old White men clueless to the lives and events of average people running for President.
How has the SAME useless formula guided America through the unknown horizons of the 21st Century?
Like trying to use DOS to running complex computer programs .....
The SAME useless formula has NOT created long lasting paradigms appropriate for the challenges of the 21st Century. Like how many public schools are STILL not teaching the accurate history of America because of the complaints and worries of the many parents (mostly White) who are just as clueless as the Old White men running for President until Joe Biden finally saw the light and stepped out of the race for President coming in less than three months.
Why are so many Americans SO CONVINCED that the tired unimaginative status quo will rise to the occasion and bring America into the promises of the 21st Century when the tired unimaginative status quo seek only to honor itself versus the average person who struggles to maintain a roof over their heads LET ALONE provide for a family of even TWO?
By focusing on the cult of personalities (harris, trump) and avoiding to confront the true problems of America (Education, Poverty, Poor Health Care, Guns and Gun Violence, Failing Energy Grid, Homelessness, Rising Drug Problems, Crumbling Infrastructure), the decline of America continues to gather more momentum with each passing week and month and years.
If only I was a journalist, I know exactly what question I would put to both of them.
"In the "Welcome to Medicare" physical, Medicare approves having the patient take a standard test for cognition. Please hand your wristwatch to my trusted assistants, they will give it back to you before the next question. Take the notepad and pen provided to you on your podum and draw the face of a clock. Put all the numbers properly around the dial and draw the hands to show the time to be 3:40. Sign your work. You have three minutes, and you must show your finished result to the camera. Have you turned in your watches? OK, GO"
More than anything I need to see this. Can Trump even draw a clock?
Amen! For God's sake it's so frustrating that hardly anyone is talking about what's actually happening. He's demented or unwell and he's going to "debate" someone who's healthy, smart, eloquent, and sharp as a whip?? Please!!!
The vast majority of the American citizenship is undereduacated and contolled and consumed with media. They are so afraid of the RIGHTS - which are non existant because they can be taken away. in America. 100 years after the civil war LBJ went All the Way just to help stop Racisim and segregation in the south, and to keep citizens of the south from horrible acts used to stop minorities from casting votes. That has not been very long in the generational politic of americans.
Young Americans who are much more tolerant are angry about WAR as in the 60's and do not think either party is worth voting for, and possibly they have good reason not to trust the ADULTS in American for not only electing but allowing a person with the lack of qualifications to get a job a McDonalds to become president. They read and they learn and they know what other countries are doing right. Few of them drink or smoke and many are struggling to find work and are burdened with enormous student debt, thankfully Biden is working to help with that. State universities cost as much as Harvard and elite Private Universities did in the late 1990s.
It is an impossible situation for anyone to get their head around, and the3 very least ANY AMERICAN must expect is to have more involvement in the choices of leadership and policy than money, often their money given in hope of winning an election every 4 years that may or may not take away the most common and decent human rights Americans have.
When Gun violence is rampant and poverty and lack of education, lack of skilled workmanship, a country that has learned to define a person by what the do for a living and how much they make what car they drive and which guns they own.
Thankfully it seems it is not a majority, however, the reactionary vangaurd that brutally attacks our rights as human beings are providing more fuel to the NRA and Big pharma who will elect of course the candidate who will bolster their money bags. If we outlaw lobbying and treat it as a high crime and actually hand out punishments, maybe we will make progress.
I hope that this brilliant team of Kamala Harris and TIm Walz will be able to make great changes in education and white collar crime prosecution. Then possibly in 100 years we may see a country that is rid of racism - even in the state of Mississippi.
Perhaps adopting the LBJ campaign ad with the little girl and atomic bomb with a hint of putin in there would make voting citizens think about the greater good for a moment. Not just Trumps promise to make them rich and smart like him - I think that is his policy?
If I was one election from casting my first vote and I saw donald trump win in 2016, when the first president I knew was Barack Obama - and that was when I was 7 in second grade? I think I might feel much worse than I do as someone who was in second grade during the carter administration. These are what the children of the Obama era know - nothing is real, they have always had school shooters., guilty people really can get away with lots of things. It is an uphill climb, but I hope the campaign will focus on the young voter as well, and realize where they are coming from.
Becuase I do believe most over 50 years olds and maybe 40 year olds are seeing the clear choice. I worry about5 the youth, and them just not voting becuase Biden wont stop the Wars.
I don't understand the rules of debate but why doesn't the host interrupt to ask the respondent to answer the question when they are not?