Debate gives Americans pause about nation’s future
While watching the debate, I felt tiny in scale. It took place in Atlanta, yet its questions extended far beyond the city limits, beyond America, beyond time and place.
History will remember former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden as the two candidates who stood on that stage and competed for the favor of the electorate. Whether we like it or not, whether we approve of it or not, this is where we are and what we have to work with. Regardless of where you stand or what you believe in, this moment needs to be met with solemn acceptance of its severity and the courage needed to see it through.
Nobody knows where the country will stand tomorrow or a year from now. But as we are in the present, we can take it all in and ready ourselves for what the future might hold.
AMAAN BHIMANI, ATLANTA
Biden was bad, but what about Trump’s whoppers?
We have been deluged with commentary about President Biden’s weak performance in the debate. And, to be honest, it was not good. But, here’s the most important takeaway: we have “normalized” Trumpism.
Former President Donald Trump lied repeatedly during the debate, spouting one falsehood after another. It would not be an exaggeration to say that, with virtually every utterance, he was describing a myth totally divorced from reality. Let’s be honest: The man does not care a whit about facts, evidence or the truth. But he gets a pass.
I have come to understand his supporters well enough that this is no surprise. But the press? This should be headline news: “Trump tells 33 lies during the course of the debate.”
We have become so comfortably numb to his outrageous conduct that we excuse his lies. Biden’s admittedly weak performance was made the big story, not that Trump told one whopper after another. This is sad. This is journalism that has lost its compass. It is the epitome of the formation of dictatorship.
GARY NAGEL, SNELLVILLE
