The Final Debate

The debates are now in the can… the only thing left is an election next Tuesday…  (Well… maybe next Tuesday… we’ve been voting for weeks now, and from everything I am hearing we are potentially going to be voting for days after as well.  Tuesday, November 3rd is more or less a causal suggestion than a red letter date.)

I, as many of you, have been left feeling extremely dissatisfied over the debates.  The first one was an oddity at best, and the Vice Presidential debate had the same substantive value as the office itself.

The last one was clearly more substantive… and dare I say presidential?  Regardless, I am honestly not sure how many minds have been changed one way or the other.

One thing that might have value for President Trump is nuanced, and may secure a victory for him.

When I hear pundits talk about “undecided voters” this close to an election I get a tinge of serious concern.  How can some be undecided at this point?  More importantly… what nugget of information are they hoping to glean before making their final decision?

Imagine standing in Purgatory and seeing the gates of Heaven to one side and the gates of Hell  to another.  Who is legitimately going to be undecided as they approach their choice?  What are the variables present that make someone pause for reflection?

In a traditional election I get it.  The Republicans and the Democrats have, to a large extent, morphed into a left-leaning and right-leaning singular institutional party.  Gravitating between one or the other generally will not affect the trajectory of the Republic. 

This is different though. 

On one side (VP Biden) we have the counter-revolutionary impulses of established order seeking to return to the calcified, bureaucratized America from Bush the Elder to Obama. 

On the other side is revolutionary chaos. 

Let’s call it for what it is.

President Trump has been revolutionary and has thrown our nation and the international order into a form of chaos.  I don’t say this pejoratively… quite the opposite… his has been a massive agent of change and, as a result of that change, we see peace flowering in a desert oasis where it has been historically elusive.  (Sudan has joined the UAE and the Kingdom of Bahrain in recognizing Israel).  We see business flourishing as regulations are relaxed, and we see employment opportunities expanding across all ethnic groups. 

This is a direct punch in the nose to the established inteligencia that has gotten so much wrong for so many years, but convinced the public that its brand of order was essential for American survival.

So… I go back to my original question:  What makes a voter undecided at this point?

The answer is a combination of lack of knowledge and general ambivalence. 

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So, what then is accomplished by this series of debates? 

As an aside… I would like to make a modest proposal for the next presidential debates in four years: 

No more journalists. 

They have proven to be completely inadequate.  Instead, have each campaign nominate a champion that would question the other candidate.  Want to see them have to answer hard questions?  Have someone from the other side be the questioner.

But I digress…

What did President Trump achieve with his last performance in last week’s debate?

First, he got the corruption of Hunter Biden out front and center… and with it the knowledge that Joe Biden was more than likely involved in using his office as Vice President for personal profit.  The mainstream media has ignored the story, and social media has suppressed that.  Getting it out in the debate brought the story front and center. 

Secondly, he forced Biden to admit the obvious… He wants to ban fracking and eliminate fossil fuels.  This may have cost Biden Pennsylvania and Texas.

Lastly he forced Biden to abandon his allegiance (at least publicly) to the extreme left-wing of his party.  This means the millennials just lost the major impetus to vote for him.  Now he is just another grandfatherly figure with no clear agenda… but one that expressly discounts theirs.  A voting group that historically appears in low numbers, just lost the motivation to show up for this election as well.

We will see (HOPEFULLY!) how this stratagem turns out next Tuesday.