Can’t Believe I Have To Say This But Mountain Dew Does Not Cure Dementia
Why I’m not watching the presidential debate.
I’ve no interest in watching tonight’s presidential debate. It’s not just because I’m on vacation and I better things to do. This debate is a sorry spectacle that highlights America’s failure to hold Donald Trump accountable for his many crimes. He’s an adjudicated rapist and a convicted felon who’s been indicted for trying to steal the last election and fleeing the White House with classified documents. He should be in prison but instead he’s once again the Republican nominee for president. Why is a convicted felon who plotted a coup even allowed in the same room with the president? A former Black Panther couldn’t have gotten a White House tour during the 1980s.
The Republican Party has rejected the rule of law and representative democracy. It’s fully embraced election denialism and authoritarianism. Policy debates about immigration and inflation are superfluous under these circumstances, especially since Trump is just going to lie about everything. He’s currently suggesting that President Joe Biden might take performance-enhancing drugs before the debate — presumably something called “Debathol.” He told his supporters at a rally last weekend: “Right now, crooked Joe has gone to a log cabin to ‘study.’ He’s sleeping now, because they want to get him good and strong. So a little before debate time, he gets a shot in the ass … I say he’ll come out all jacked up, right?”
If Biden has access to dementia-curing drugs, he should just release them to the public and coast to victory. It’s not just Trump who’s slandering the president. When Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked Rep. Eric Burlison if the White House was “experimenting with getting doses right, giving Biden medicine ahead of the debate,” the sitting member of Congress replied, “Yeah, elderly individuals or someone that has dementia, they can find moments of clarity … moments of the day when they have energy … Trump’s team shouldn’t underestimate Joe Biden or his team’s ability to … whether they’re gonna jack him up on Mountain Dew or whatever it is.”
I’m no Dr. House, but I’m pretty sure Mountain Dew’s not an effective treatment for dementia. Pete Buttigieg is half Biden’s age and he probably wouldn’t drink Mountain Dew before a debate unless he had multiple bathroom breaks scheduled.
Speaker Mike Johnson told Sean Hannity on Tuesday, “I expect [Biden’s] gonna to be up on energy drinks or whatever they’re gonna to give him.”
It’s hilarious because downing Red Bulls non-stop is what I recall young start-up employees doing so they could power through a project. It doesn’t scream “too elderly to function.” I’m picturing the Mountain Dew-guzzling Biden wearing a hoodie and flip flops while furiously typing code.
Liberals have pointed to this absurdity as evidence that Republicans are scared that Biden will wipe the floor with Trump. I’m less optimistic. Trump has demonstrated that he won’t follow any formal debate rules or protocols. He’ll just scream at Biden, but at least this time he won’t knowingly expose him to COVID. It’s unclear how Democrats can define victory in this scenario. We already know Biden’s not psychotic.
My friend
makes a strong argument for why debates do matter — even if this specific one is unlikely to greatly shift public opinion (it’s too early and both candidates have been president). Noah argues that “debates are a ritual not just of democracy, but of democratic accountability. Debates are a hoop that presidents are supposed to jump through. Candidates have to stand up in front of the American people (or however many of the American people want to watch) and answer questions about policies, visions for the future, scandals. Biden and Trump have to confront their opponents and treat those opponents at least briefly, within minimal bounds, as if they are a legitimate part of the democratic process.”He’d early quoted political scientist Jonathan Bernstein, who said, “Trump’s participation in a debate would itself be a form, however weak, of accepting the legitimacy of the upcoming election, and that too can perhaps be a meaningful signal to be sent, even if Trump doesn’t really mean it.”
I think that’s my issue with this debate and with how Democrats and the mainstream media are confronting Trump. Hollow rituals don’t preserve democracy. They just inure Americans to the ongoing horror.
I’m past caring whether Trump or Republicans will grudgingly admit to respecting the results of the election if they lose. We know they won’t, and so does the Biden campaign. Its rapid response social media account posted video of Trump telling his former press secretary Sean Spicer that if he loses, he’ll “try to stop it a second time.” Trump is an active threat to American democracy, and that’s not up for debate. Biden sharing a stage with that threat and shaking his hand isn’t a testament to democracy. It’s willful denial.
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Stephen, I’m watching the “debate” tonight, not because I’m undecided (ha!), or expect to hear a reasonable discussion of policy, or even consider it a legitimate ritual in which the two candidates are required to participate. I’m watching because I think it will be an event of historic significance, and I want to watch it happen in real time. I want to “be there” when whatever happens, happens. Political-News Junkie Agonistes.
My dad took various dementia drugs for his Alzheimer's. Without exception, they work to DELAY the ongoing brain deterioration of dementia, not to heal or improve the damage that's already been done.