By Michael P. Riccards

On June 27, the two major candidates for president of the United States debated their future more than the future of the republic. The mere presence of those two ill-equipped men on a national stage represents a failure of the American party system. No two men so unqualified should be asked to lead the USA at a time of maximum peril.

Television is like an x-ray machine. It removes the flesh and lets you see the bones and structures of the body. The televised x -ray showed us the usual Trump lies, distortions, and demagoguery that we have come to know, especially since his single disastrous term. Now to save us, he insists he will forgo golf and lead us again to make America great. Joe Biden, the incumbent, is clearly mentally handicapped and from the very beginning he looked like he was ready for the undertaker.

Much of what Biden said makes sense in terms of domestic public policy, and he has heroically tried to bring us into the twenty-first century, but he is unconvincing when he stutters, misstates, and forgets basic points. 

We don’t need to have a president who reads all the briefing papers. FDR and Lincoln did not. Biden, who had been running for the presidency since he was 35, was never very bright but had good instincts. It is hard though not to agree with Trump that his administration has caused chaos with its immigration policies and with its embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Since then, Biden has shown up propping up the Israeli government and embracing the comedian who is leading Ukraine. He insists that it is our mission to make the world safe for democracy. The last time Americans heard that, it was a prelude to war by an even greater president..

Trump’s vision of a second term is  to seek retribution by holding to account his old enemies. No Lincoln is he. He talked of his own need to repay hurts. What about  the collapsing post pandemic educational system, the inability of people to find housing, the suicide rates among  veterans, the mounting debt while we tamper with Social Security and Medicare? He can’t deal with these challenge, for he can’t even conceptualize the workings of government.

We have gone past the great leaders of the empire. We are on the downside of leadership. It reads like Gibbon. 

The only piece that is missing is the candidate, from a once noble family, who had his brain nibbled away by a worm in Africa. At least he has an excuse.

I am old enough to remember the first debate when an experienced and articulate Nixon took on a charismatic and razor sharp Jack Kennedy. When he was asked why he ran for the presidency, JFK did not say it was to stay on the edge by his aged fingertips or to settle scores with political enemies and prosecutors. He said, “I wish to lay before the American people the great unfinished business of our time.”

Michael P. Riccards, a former college president, is the author of 30 books, including “A Republic If You Can Keep it.”

Categories: Jandoli Institute, Michael Riccards, Politics, Uncategorized