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, joy) 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 Kamal 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 Mr. Trump denied any involvement in. 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 I 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 do 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!
