I rarely think of Irish poets, but I could not help
thinking of William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
as I watched the 45th president unravel during
his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Irish poet wrote:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
The nation watched a man, once full of arrogance and
bluster, reduce himself to a blubbering
buffoon who offered unproven accusations of
immigrants eating dogs and cats to a nation
that craved specificity about public policy.
We watched a man who scowled and grimaced for
nearly two hours while his joyful (yes,
joyful) opponent smiled and relaxed into her
power. We watched a man who once boldly
stalked candidate Hilary Rodham Clinton
onstage, nearly cower when a confident Kamala
Harris strode over to him and outstretched her
hand in a gesture of courtesy and gentility.
The former president was a shadow of his
legendary self who could not seem to connect
all of the dots and had to resort to lies – 33
of them according to CNN – to cover both his
ineptitude and his ignorance.
Vice President Kamala Harris handled the business of the debate from the
handshake to the facts, and her preparation
showed. She irritated the 45th President
numerous times, from telling him that he was
“fired by 81 million people” to needling him
on his much-exaggerated crowd size. His team
crowed that he didn’t need to prep as much as
he did, but his lack of preparation showed,
even when he tried to turn one of his zingers
on her. Although both microphones were off,
she spoke over him and he gleefully said, “I’m
speaking. Sound familiar”. Reprising her line
from the VP debate with Mike Pence in 2020
might have been effective if he didn’t have to
attempt to mock her with the “sound familiar”,
but the fact that he added that made him seem
as effete and ineffective as he is.
The two passionately mixed it up on abortion, where he
lied and said that Harris favors nine-month
abortions and infanticide, so out of order
that one of the moderators had to fact check
him. They mixed it up on immigration. They
mixed it up on the economy. Trump’s best line
might have been “why didn’t she do it before”,
a Vice President’s job is to serve the
President, while a President’s job is to make
policy. As Vice President, Kamala didn’t enact
a bigger child tax credit because she
couldn’t. Her job was to follow the
President’s lead and help him implement his
policies. Trump’s chiding will cause some on
the fence to raise questions about Harris, but
for every question, the Vice President had an
answer.
Mr. Trump inelegantly attempted to poke fun at President
Biden by describe him as relaxing at the
beach, and chiding Vice President Harris to
“wake him up at 4 p.m.”. She didn’t bite. In
contrast, he bit at all the bait she threw at
him, unable to stay on message and
disciplined. But who expects discipline from a
lout and a bully who has blustered his way
through his presidency and his subsequent
years out of office. Much of his vitriol has
centered on his contention that he won the
2020 election, a lie that spurred a mob to
descend on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, an
event in which Mr. Trump denied any
involvement. Again, Harris was effective in
reminding people that she was at the Capitol
that day.
ABC moderator David Muir asked Mr. Trump if it is
appropriate to weigh in on the racial identity
of Vice President Harris, and Trump replied
with his usual word salad. There was some
truth in his confused words, though. “I don’t
care what she is. I don’t care. You make a big
deal out of something. I couldn’t care less.
Whatever she wants to be is okay with me,” he
said. What she wants to be is President of the
United States, and I hope that’s okay with Mr.
Trump because at the rate he is going, he’ll
have to, once again, resign himself to losing.
Trump’s debate performance indicates that he is
unraveling. He lost his train of thought on
more than one occasion, he blatantly lied
repeatedly, and he drilled down on unimportant
issues. Not once did he display a pleasant
countenance. Indeed, he seemed ready to
explode. Meanwhile Vice-President Harris did
not seem stressed or angry, just factual. She
handled her business even as Trump fell apart.
Brava, Kamala!
