America Should Be Ashamed

 I watched the first half-hour of tonight's 'debate' and couldn't watch it any longer. All three men on the stage should be ashamed. And, America should be ashamed. 

Chris Wallace clearly favored Joe Biden and bailed him out twice during that period. Wallace used to be the best, and fairest, interviewer in Washington but apparently the Mike Wallace DNA favoring Democrats seems to have kicked in as he has aged. His performance was a disgrace to journalism. Chris is 72. 

Donald Trump. While I wasn't expecting much from him, he performed below my expectations. He was a bully and wouldn't allow either Biden or Wallace to speak. President Trump had a couple of pertinent achievements about which he could have clearly spoken but blustered instead. Trump is 74. 

Joe Biden. Also, awful. None of the questions posted to him while I was watching were answered. In fact, he deflected. He also spoke one clear untruth. I wondered if his refusal to allow his ears to be examined for electronic devices was because someone was feeding him canned answers as he wasn't answering the questions being asked. Age 77. 

When I (age 68) was a kid, candidates were selected in "smoke-filled rooms" by the "wise men" (and, it was always men) of the political parties. Truman and Eisenhower were nominated in this manner. I'd like to say that is superior but the D's tried something like that in 2016 with the superdelegates and they ended up with the utterly corrupt Hillary (age 72).

Do you see a pattern here? 

The U.S. Constitution contains a lower age limit for president (35). Perhaps it is time to put an upper age on presidents. I would propose that no one may be elected president if, on November 1 of the year of the election, they are 72 years old or older. 

But, that doesn't solve the problem of overwhelmingly old people running for the office. While I am a proud Reagan conservative (Reagan was an energetic 69 when sworn in), the only person who had any interesting ideas in this past campaign was Democrat Tulsi Gabbard (39). 

Three are three reasons primarily old people run for President.

• Our campaigns for federal office are far, far, far too long. In the first half of the 20th Century, primary campaigns began in Q1 of election years. You had the nominating conventions. The actual campaigns started on Labor Day. As late as 1968, Robert Kennedy didn't announce his campaign until March. Now, presidential campaigns are the year around, every year. Usually only older people have raised their children and have the time. What does that tell us? The federal government is far too powerful and important. 
• Money. Too often younger people have not built a sufficient personal financial base to sustain them if they lose. Unless you are an attorney, you likely will not be able to go back to your old job. 
• As we have previously discussed, I believe a terrible impediment to quality people running is the Supreme Court's Sullivan v New York Times. That decision essentially allowed the news media to slander or libel people (today, especially conservatives) with impunity. Young people need to care about their reputations. Older peoples' reputations are made. While certainly not the worst Supreme Court decision the court has ever made, it is up there. Congress needs to use its Article III, Section 2 powers to overrule Sullivan and put a reasonable libel/slander law in place that does not have defacto carve-outs for the media or politicians. Otherwise, good people will continue to refuse to run because they will not put their families through the process of running for office or being confirmed for office. 

We are rapidly losing or have already lost our once-great nation. Republicans and Democrats see eye to eye on practically nothing except getting reelected. They are happy to gratuitously pour gasoline on the fire if it will serve their interests. The D's allow, or even encourage, lawlessness in our big cities (lawlessness including the absurd impeachment as COVID threatened our nation). This cannot be sustained.

If you are Republican, watch the MSM from time to time.

Democrats, read the conservative media (start here). 

What else can we do? We have given what we can afford (we can't afford a great deal) to a few candidates we believe will be outstanding. I encourage you to work for (knock on doors for example) or donate to really good candidates wherever you can find them. 

A world without America and its ideals is too frightening to contemplate. As Reagan pointed out, people from the Soviet Union or Communist China had the United States to flee to. But, where do Americans go if the United States falls to socialism?