By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
June 30, 2023
Here’s what I hoped would happen when President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump met for an unusually early presidential debate on Thursday night.
I hoped that Biden would utter clear, disciplined and hard-hitting statements. I hoped that Trump would issue numerous rambling, incoherent, hateful and obviously false screeds about immigration, the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, renewable energy and sharks, among other topics. I hoped that millions of voters, especially independent and undecided voters, would watch the debate and realize that only one of the two American major political parties is running a sane, mentally stable candidate.
I view Biden as a good person and a good president, for all that I disagree with some of his decisions Covid-19 and the Israel-Gaza war. I view Trump as a narcissistic monster who seems to have limited ability to empathize with anyone who isn’t a relative, close friend or person able to help Trump. (To be sure, Trump’s empathy for relatives does not extend to all family members.) Moreover, I think Trump is obsessed with accumulating and wielding power in order to line his own and his allies’ pockets and to punish his enemies, regardless of the damage this would do to the nation. Trump is frightening because he is a base man beloved by millions; many of his allies are frightening because, unlike the former president, they have the intellect and discipline to put numerous cruel conservative policies into effect.
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