I’ve been more and more involved in politics as I’ve gotten older. Part of it is that I’m more educated about politics and how things can affect me and how my vote can really change things. And part of it is that we live in a time now where it’s difficult to not be involved unless you are really making an effort to ignore what’s happening in the world. I know there are more things that I could be doing and I’m trying to figure out ways to be involved that will work with my schedule no matter what happens. I am working on getting approved to write postcards for future elections. I just need to work on my handwriting a bit more because I have such sloppy handwriting (even after working on it before).
Because this year is the year we have nothing but time, I’ve been able to watch more political events online than I normally would. I don’t know if I’ve ever watched the Republican Convention before, but this year I did. It also helped that the Convention was a short prime-time tv event and not something going on all day. I also watched the Democrat Convention, but that’s something I normally watch at least a little. And this year, I did my watching a little differently.
Normally, I watch on tv since it’s on every single tv channel. I usually also live-tweet because I have thoughts I want to get out. But this time, I actually watched through YouTube. Crooked Media has a lot of podcasts that I love. And for events like the conventions and debates, they stream the event through YouTube on half of the screen and they have a group chat from their Slack account on the other. The people in Slack are all very involved in politics. Many worked for past candidates or administrations. They are really informed about the issues and can almost do live fact-checking (although they aren’t fact-checking like some news outlets do with checking every statement). It’s a great way to watch and to be a bit entertained and learn as well.
For the conventions, I not only watched through Crooked Media and enjoyed their chat, but I also had my own chat going too. Some of the women from Movie Club wanted to chat during the conventions, so we started a new message group to do that in (we didn’t want to clutter up the Movie Club message group). Watching with them helped keep things entertaining, just like Crooked Media did.
So before the debate, I messaged the separate group to see if they wanted to have a chat going during the debate as well. Everyone did, and we had a few other group members from Movie Club who wanted to be in it too. We had a nice sized group of people who all are very vocal about politics. So before the debate started, I got YouTube up on my tv and my phone in my hand with the message group open.
And I am so glad I had both the Crooked Media Slack to watch and my message group. I think everyone agrees that the debate was not good. It was so difficult to watch. I support Biden, but I’m not going to say he was perfect. I think he did a great job considering how often he was interrupted. It was not easy for him to get a point across because Trump was interjecting so much. And the questions didn’t seem to be ones that would push both Trump and Biden to answer with specific policy ideas. I know Biden tried to change his answer so he could include policy information, but it was so hard to hear what he wanted to say when he couldn’t speak without having to stop and start a lot.
All of us in my message group (and everyone in the Slack) seemed to be just as frustrated while watching as I was. This wasn’t a debate. I don’t know what to call it. A yelling match? A waste of time? It wasn’t what we wanted out of a debate and not what citizens deserved when listening to a current president and possible future president.
I could go into detail about a lot of things that made me mad, but I think the biggest two were things that seemed to anger so many people. The first was Trump talking about Biden’s children and trying to say some horrible things about them. Having a drug addiction isn’t good, but it’s something that so many people struggle with. Saying that having a drug addiction makes you a horrible person is not right in my opinion. Saying drug addiction is horrible would be better. Fortunately, Biden was able to say that while his son had a drug problem, he overcame it and he was proud of him. That’s an important thing for people struggling to hear. I also didn’t like how Trump was talking about one of Biden’s sons and when he didn’t get the response he wanted he switched to talking about his other son. Trump and his supporters have said many times that politician’s children should be considered off-limits. I know there is a difference between a minor and an adult. But also, this debate had nothing to do with their children. Biden did not mention many of the things Trump’s children have gotten in legal trouble for.
But what made me so mad (and it seems made most of the country mad) was that Trump would not condemn white supremacists. He was given a very clear chance to do so and claimed that he would. But he wouldn’t do that. He did tell a group to stand back and stand by and that group is now using that statement as a sign that they need to be ready to go (the idea of standing by is making them think they need to be in the streets soon). When a Republican commentator was asked about why Trump wouldn’t clearly say he was against white supremacists, the commentator said that Trump does not want to say he was against his supporters. Even FOX News hosts were saying that it was such an easy thing for Trump to do and they don’t know why he didn’t condemn such an evil group that has so much hatred. I don’t want to believe that Trump really approves of what white supremacists and other hate groups do, but it’s hard to say he’s against it when he can’t say he’s against it. And the day after the debate, he claimed he didn’t know anything about a group that he called out and said he didn’t know their actions. So if he didn’t know who this group was (which I don’t believe but I’m going with that idea), why would he say he condemns their actions when he doesn’t know what they do?
Honestly, this debate left me feeling so sad and hopeless about things. My friends in our message group felt the same way and we were all trying to cheer each other up. What we can be hopeful about is that so many people seem to be upset with what Trump did and they do not agree with how he has been handling this pandemic. I know that we might still be dealing with COVID no matter who the president was. But I wish we had a national response 6 months ago. I wish we had a leader who accepted the tests when they were offered to us instead of taking the time to create new ones. I wish we had someone in charge who was encouraging people to wear masks. So many doctors are saying that if we just wore masks that we would be at a fraction of the cases. I have known too many people who know someone who died. I have had too many friends get sick and I have worried that they would not make it. Even though all my friends have gotten better, we have no clue what the long-term effects will be on their health. I wish we weren’t dealing with policies state by state because until we have a vaccine (which looks like it will be in maybe 6 more months), we might not be able to get a handle on this like other countries have done.
Even with how upsetting it was to watch this debate, I am still going to watch the other debates. I’ll be doing it with my friends in a message group and the Slack conversation on my tv. I just hope that whatever changes the debate organization makes will allow it to be much more civil and both Trump and Biden can announce all their policies (although Trump seems very hesitant to announce any policies like what his new healthcare plan would be even when he is given the chance).
We are a month away from this election being done. If you are going to vote in person, see if you can do so before Election Day. Lines will likely be long on Election Day so voting early is a great way to avoid that. Also, voting by mail is an option. I always vote by mail (I usually can’t get the time off I need to vote and I don’t have the ability to take a day off work to wait in line if I need to take a few hours). It’s safe and voter fraud is very very low. If you don’t want to mail your ballot back, many states have boxes you can drop your ballots in near polling places. I recommend looking online at your options and picking which way will be best for you. But please vote no matter what.
And to end this on a positive note, this video made me smile. Yes, the debate was depressing, but at least this funny song was created from it.
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