Thoughts on the Recent Debate that Nobody Asked for, but I’m Writing About Anyway

By: Jana Greene

I’m so old, I remember when presidential debates were civil and if one talked over the other, it made news because it was RUDE. Remember when rudeness mattered?

I’m going to stray a bit from my usual content to vent about our current presidential situation, hopefully for the last time, but don’t quote me on that because HOOBOY! It’s going to a bumpy ride.

No. I did not watch the Presidential Debate. So let’s get that out of the way. “But Jana, how do you know it was a disaster if you didn’t watch it?” I’ve unfortunately pored over the snippets and talked to friends who did watch.

Ain’t nobody got anything good to say, unless they are maybe really good at cognitive dissonance, which is when you’ve already made up your mind about a candidate, and anything he says will be processed in your brain IN HIS FAVOR.

The reason I know this is I was the Queen of Cognitive Dissonance not too terribly many years ago. So cocksure was I that I was on the right side of history, I hardly listened to what people who believed differently than me had to say, and when I did, I listened through the filter of already being “right,” which discounts their point-of-view entirely before you’re out of the gate.

And if you have made up your mind already, debates are useless – just a gladiatorial showcase or two old men who have NO concept of what living paycheck to paycheck is, much less be “in touch with the People.” (The PEOPLE? Yeah, that’s US. We fall by the wayside in all of this.)

Also, I hate to state the obvious, but we have seen with our own eyeballs how each of them ACTUALLY “presidents.” So this is season two of a really sh*tty series and I cannot BELIEVE it was renewed for a new season.

Didn’t most of us teach our kids not to bully others, call other children names, to share their toys and resources, and to use their indoor voices?

We taught them to work out their feelings out without resorting preschool behavior (even though THEY were ACTUAL preschoolers?) At tender ages, they learned to advocate for themselves without being disrespectful, to not inturreupt each other, and to tell the truth?Weren’t these the baseline manners and respect we instilled in them when they were in diapers, for @&$/# sake?

SO WHY CAN’T ADULT LEADERS MANAGE TO TO DISPLAY ONE SINGLE BIG-BOY BEHAVIOR? NO REGARD FOR RESPECT, AND NO RISING FIRST- GRADER MANNERS? If they were on their BEST behavior (you’d think auditioning for Leader of the Free World would inspire classiness, but you’d be wrong) during a debate, at least we would know they had some civility. But now I’m thinking HOLY SHITEBALLS, maybe this IS their BESST behavior. Which explains so much…

What’s that you say? They are righteously upset, and that makes it okay? Hell naw. It doesn’t make it okay. This country is broke as a joke, in more ways than one. Guess who else led “passion” for what they do? Nero. Hitler. Caligula. Hell, even Ted Bundy.

Maybe some of are staying away from politics right now NOT because we don’t care about our country, but because we care so much about her we can barely stand to watch the fall of an empire, in the name of Christian nationalism, no less, by a man who displays not ONE SINGLE FRUIT IF THE SPIRIT. Not even a little, shriveled grape of grace, or dingleberry of actual truth. (Note to self: incorporate “dingleberry of truth” in everyday conversation.)

The sitting president is giving Weekend at Bernie’s. I don’t actually thing Biden is evil, just aged and currently on some other planet, which also does us NO good here on earth, that he is supposed to be RUNNING a portion of. The other is, well, Trump.

Shame on us. Shame on us for accepting this. Shame on us for propping up Biden and expecting him to have ONE coherent thing to say, and shame on us for allowing that tyrannical, arrogant, extremely UN-Jesusy megalomaniac who has published his own version of the BIBLE (which doesn’t phase some of you, wtf?) get THIS FAR.

We are the laughingstock of the entire world and I ain’t even mad about it because DAYUM, old farts!

Through the supposed “leaders of the free world” we saw a political version of The Punch and Judy Show (Biden would be familiar with that.) You gave us a shitshow SO SPECTACULAR, it will go down in the books as the single most undignified, unhinged, embarrassing impressions of two entitled, pull-up wearin’, nanny-nanny-boo-boo-stick-your-head-in-doo-doo Kindergartener displayin’ blowhards, for ALLLLL the world to see.

Returning to my regularly scheduled content next, which is usually about my woo woo spirituality, recovery, the frustrations with and triumphs over chronic illness, including cancer.

I would rather write about my chronic illness than the chronic state of the union – the union is whack, and our candidates are a cancer on this great nation, no less toxic than a percentage of the janky blood my marrow is making – useless in any practicality and snuffing the life out its host. As Americans, we are playing host to this political machine, and it is sucking the life out of us. It is ABSOLUTELY dividing us from one another. Which I think is their whole point.

And with that, I bid you good day. Please smile at strangers. Please feed the hungry. Please be there for your sick friend, open the door for people, and remember that every single person is battling something you don’t see. Please try to remember these two “leaders” don’t your name, or even really care what you think, so long as it translates to money and power.