Illustration by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
Written September 7, 2024
Donald Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris will be meeting on the debate stage this Tuesday, September 10th, an event sponsored by ABC News. It is being billed as the verbal match of the century. Ms. Harris is a former attorney general, US Senator, and Vice-President. She has had over twenty years of public speaking experience and is an accomplished debater. She is smart, knowledgeable, witty, and tough.
Mr. Trump somehow slid into the presidency eight years ago. Other than those four years he spent befriending international despots, failing to stem the spread of the worst pandemic of the century—negligence which cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives, and cutting taxes for the filthiest rich in the country, he did virtually nothing.
He does have experience in the public eye, basking in his self-induced limelight for much of his life. Trump has been a fixture on the New York City major part of the social and semi-political landscape for a long time. He took a full-page ad calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, a group of African American teens accused of raping and assaulting a jogger. Amid the public outrage engendered by Mr. Trump, they were found guilty and sentenced to long prison sentences—until they were exonerated. Another feather in Trump’s political cap. In terms of sheer incompetence, fecklessness, and mean-heartedness, America has never seen anyone quite like him.
He is also a recently convicted felon. A jury of his peers found him guilty of thirty-four counts of fraud. He was also ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll, a woman he sexually assaulted, forty-five million dollars for libel. Yet his followers are slavishly devoted to him, even following him into an attack on their own nation’s capital, begging the question—what is this man’s appeal?
Part of his appeal seems to be his public persona. He is a rich guy who claims to be (despite numerous bankruptcies) a master at the art of the deal. He was a master of reality TV on The Apprentice. Before being elected president, and arguably after, he had no experience in public service. And somehow, he convinced millions of Americans he would make America great again. How?
I have to say his appeal is lost on me. He seems to be a (physically and emotionally) bloated personality whose main expertise seems to be talking about himself. His history indicates he doesn’t care about anything but his own welfare and, like a typical twelve-year-old, he lives for attention. His presidential policies are disastrous, his pronouncements are inane, and his personality is offensive.
So how does he hold an arena full of followers rapt for hours? We’ve all heard him speak on and on and on, but the truth is he never seems to say anything. Over and over again, we hear about the “best thing ever” and “an event like no one’s ever seen” and other banalities. He rarely, if ever, lays out policies for the future or plans for the greater good. He only talks about how great things will be if people follow him.
Looking at transcripts of his speeches also brings his lack of focus to light. During the middle of a speech, Trump will leap from subject to subject in a sort of mentally deranged hopscotch, ignoring his handler’s advice to stay on topic and desist from attacking his opponents. Of course, one of his favorite tropes is to give his political adversaries juvenile nicknames. We’ve all heard of “Crooked Hillary” and “Sleepy Joe” and “Little Marco.” Somehow, demeaning his opponents with his playground bully tactics seems to resonate with his people.
Recent studies of Trump’s speech styles have revealed that the vocabulary he uses in his speeches is at a fourth-grade level. President Obama, on the other hand, used a ninth-grade vocabulary during his addresses to the nation. This is not to say that Mr. Trump’s followers are in any way less intelligent than the average American. Perhaps they are hearing the truth that they want to hear.
Politics is difficult. Governing is more difficult. Parsing through issues of economics, foreign policy, social reform, racism, gun safety, and reproductive rights is not easy. A lot of Americans don’t want to nail with the nuts and bolts of inflation or immigration rights or the war in Gaza. They like to that immigrants are bad, that they are flooding over our border and raping and murdering and plundering. They like to hear that DEI is ruining their lives, making it impossible for them to get ahead. They want to hear that LGBTQ+ rights will result in the indoctrination of their children into corrupt and perverted life choices. They believe leftist educators and their disgusting books about the Holocaust and gay rights and mixed families will destroy the time-honored paragon of the American nuclear family (see J.D. Vance delusional pronouncements).
The truth is some people don’t want to face difficulties. They want simple, and easily understandable solutions. Inflation? Bidenomics did it. Joe Biden wants to outlaw cars. Same-sex couples and mixed families? Ban books and prohibit DEI. Even though they live in a world coded by shades of gray (and they know it), a good number of citizens want black and white solutions.
When recently asked about how he would deal with child-care costs, Mr. Trump went into a disjointed digression on his tariffs, also managing to prove he knows nothing about the struggles of families in the process. This is one of his one-size-fits-all solutions. And his based loves the idea of tariffs. Stick it to the other guy! Stick it to China!
That sort of response might work on the middle-school playground, but it has no place in our governance. The ignorance, inexperience, and greed of the first Trump administration should be ample proof of that. The truth is that we were lucky to get out of those four years in (more or less) one piece.
This debate won’t really be a contest. Trump will bob and weave, insult and berate, and pump himself up while saying virtually nothing. Ms. Harris will lay out a solid and detailed governance policy for the next four years.
One candidate will tell us he has all the solutions (while having none), will lead America to a greater place (without knowing where that might be), and that he loves this country (even though he loves nothing but himself). He is a proven liar, a cheat, a felon, and a misogynist. He will say differently but that is what he is.
Ms. Harris will offer solutions, will catch Mr. Trump in his lies, and offer evidence as to what he truly is. She will use more than a fourth-grade vocabulary. She will not whitewash the truth. She will tell us it will be difficult.
This debate could not offer a starker contrast of contestants, philosophies, or personalities. If the American voters take the easy path and listen to the man who says only what they want to hear, they will get what they deserve.
In a debate where the prosecutor takes on the felon, the liar, and the fraud, we must believe the prosecutor.