Don’t argue with fools

As I said yesterday I didn’t watch the debate last night between Joe Biden and the nasty guy. I would be able to learn all I needed to in the morning news. From the reviews I’m glad I didn’t watch. Daily Kos had a whole series of reports, starting from 9:50 last night, before the debate was over (in addition to four posts of live blogging during it, which had the moment by moment and I didn’t need). Here are some of them. Walter Einenkel wrote about Joe Biden getting annoyed with the nasty guy’s constant talking, saying, “Will you shut up, man?” In response to that Jill Filipovic tweeted:

I so feel for Hillary right now because I’m positive she wanted to say that and couldn’t.

Clinton replied:

You have no idea.

Meteor Blades reported the nasty guy said America should manage its forests like Europe does – they don’t have wildfires (yes, they do). Einenkel reported the nasty guy didn’t condemn white supremacy. Instead, told white supremacist group Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” They tweeted they’re ready to go. Some news sources are saying that the phrase was “stand down,” which, I think, means don’t get involved. But what I think the nasty guy said was be ready, I’m going to call on you soon. How do we tell the phrase was racist? Proud Boys were delighted. Within minutes they were selling shirts with their new slogan, “Stand back and stand by.” They claimed a surge in recruitment. On NPR this morning host Rachel Martin talked to Democratic strategist Karen Finney and Republican strategist Scott Jennings about the debate. Martin asked about the nasty guy not condemning racist groups and Jennings – the Republican strategist – said:

There's only one answer to that question, and that is I condemn them. I condemn anyone in our cities who's causing violence, and nobody comes in my name and causes violence and should expect me to support that. There's only one answer. You're the commander in chief. And if you want to look strong on public safety and law and order, as he calls it, you have to condemn all of these groups no matter what form they come in. He failed it. He missed that question last night, and it's going to be the most talked about issue coming out of the debate because he whiffed it.

Finney, who is black, added:

Well, if I may, I mean, as a Black woman, I mean, I was sickened and terrified, just terrified. It literally made me think his - particularly given the tone of the way he was saying it made me think of those old stories from the '60s about dealing with the Bull Connors of the world.

I heard this evening that the debate commission is considering changes before the next debate, including adding a mute button. The nasty guy campaign complained about changing the rules in the middle of the game. Sorry, no. With that performance the nasty guy has already changed the rules. Laura Clawson described how the nasty guy steamrolled Chris Wallace, the debate moderator.

Moderator Chris Wallace fought to get Trump under control, but couldn’t succeed for more than about two minutes at a time in the face of Trump’s relentless barrage of lies, insults, and petulance. At times the debate devolved into Trump arguing with Wallace, the moderator, with Wallace looking and sounding very irritated at times.

Jessica Sutherland wrote a “blow-by-blow” recap of the “nightmarish” debate. I didn’t read through it, though scanned to read the tweets of those commenting on the action. Including this from Jim Gaffigan:

My children behave more civilly when I take their screens away than Trump tonight.

Christopher Hale, running to unseat an incumbent for a House seat in Tennessee tweeted he is already selling a shirt with the words “Will you shut up, Man?” Antonio French tweeted:

My grandmother used to say, “Don’t argue with fools. Because from a distance, people can’t tell who’s the fool.” Donald Trump is a fool. He wants to bring everyone down to his level.

Dave Brown tweeted a quote from Jake Tapper:

Jake Tapper: "That was a hot mess. Inside a dumpster fire. Inside a train wreck. That was the worst debate I have ever seen"

Einenkel quoted Biden when the topic turned to race and he responded to the nasty guy’s claim that he’s been best president for black people. Here’s a bit of it:

This is a president who has used everything as a dog whistle to try to generate race hatred, racist division. You talk about helping African Americans, 1 in 1,000 African Americans has been killed because of the coronavirus. And if he doesn't do something quickly, by the end of the year, 1 in 500 will have been killed. One in 500 African Americans. This man—this man?—is the savior of African Americans? This man cares at all? This man's done virtually nothing.

Kos of Kos quoted Sarah Chamberlain, president of Main Street Partnerships, which supports Republicans in Congress, who said that women want a president with integrity. And suburban women have had enough of the nasty guy. His performance at the debate only reinforced that opinion. Greg Dworkin, in his pundit roundup, quoted several opinions about the debate, starting with the Washington Post headline, “Trump plunges debate into fiery squabbling”. Along the way Dworkin wrote:

So, Susan Collins, did Trump learn his lesson from impeachment? No he did not. That’s why you and your fellow Republican enablers need to go. And that’s why the Republicans are losing, and losing badly.

Mark Sumner wrote that Wallace tried to get the nasty guy to commit to accepting the results of the election and not engage in civil unrest. He didn’t. Sumner wrote:

But Trump had already stated: “It’s a rigged election.” He’s not waiting to see how badly he loses on Nov. 3. He knows that’s no longer in doubt. Trump is no longer even concerned about winning. He is focused on holding on to power, which is something completely different. Trump repeatedly claimed that it could be “months” before there was an outcome, and agreed readily to the idea that he was trying to seat Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court because he expects that court to protect his power. “Yeah,” said Trump. “I think I’m counting on them to look at the ballots, definitely.” Trump has already declared the election “fraudulent” and “rigged.” He’s already instructed his followers not to accept the outcome of the vote. And, of course, he’s told white supremacist militias to “stand by.”

Leah McElrath gets the last word. She tweeted:

Biden survived and maintained his empathy. In the context of being targeted with rage by a malignant narcissist, that constitutes a win. This was not the bottom. For malignant narcissists, there is no bottom. Trump can and will get worse, as long as he’s in power. To defeat a malignant narcissist, you must either become more powerful than them or remove the source of their power. That’s the only way it stops.