Stop These "Debates" -- and Caucuses, Too

2/27/2020

"Lord of the Flies."
Circular firing squads. Mass suicides. That’s what the Democrats have going for them, self-destructive fools that they are.

They are trying to beat The Worst Person in the World and none of them can summon enough dignity and knowledge to help their causes.

(There is even published talk of seeking a compromise candidate if Bernie Sanders cannot get enough delegates by the convention. Sounds like more anarchy ....except.... except.... for months I have been sad that Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio did not run for president. It's bizarre that at this point there is still strong sentiment for "another" candidate and even the fantasy that Michelle Obama would agree to run for vice president. I wouldn't wish it on her. But that only speaks to the desperate need to upgrade the leadership of this country.)

I never realized how degraded the primary system is until CNN held a so-called Town Hall from Charleston, S.C., Wednesday night.

We caught Bloomberg, Biden, Klobuchar and Warren, all with an hour of their own, to answer thoughtful questions from screened members of the audience – clearly an elite group.

Without yapping and trying to draw blood from a fellow candidate, all four displayed their strengths, often going for 3-4 minutes on one question.

Their answers were such a contrast to the inarticulate, uninformed blather from Trump when he tries to assure us that the Coronavirus will be fine with Mike Pence (Mr. Science) in charge.

Bloomberg was highly informed and adult, talking about being a mayor of a world city.

Biden was touchingly knowledgeable about the reasons for brain cancer affecting the military, including his beloved son Beau. At the end of his hour, he motioned the questioner to come to the front and he would supply references.

Klobuchar still talked about all the bills she had helped send “to Mitch McConnell’s desk,” still appearing self-centered but also emulating past senators who ran (and won) presidential contests.

And Warren, while still overly kinetic and anecdotal, reminded us of the lawyer/senator who has effectively reigned in the bandit banks and insurance companies.

The format was a welcome relief from the Trumpian reality shows, the Simon types sneering at contestants, Jerry Springer dragging human misery onto the stage and goading people to attack each other.

Maybe America is not terminally afflicted with show-biz hysteria.

Instead of turning public figures into survivors, it is time to do away with these hideous mass “debates” that turn into pie fights.

And while they are at it, let's do away with the caucuses, all that inscrutable and inarticulate milling around -- not democracy in action but rather a theater of the absurd.

This is important. America has a president who is a lethal mix of malicious and stupid and greedy.

Earth cannot afford more of this.
If there is still time, let's restore a touch of gravitas to the process.
No more mass “debates.”

Randolph

2/28/2020 07:00:07 am

George,
“ Circular firing squads“ is a sad, but highly accurate description of the political folly going on with the Democratic Party. I have chosen not to watch this orchestrated carnival of enmity.
Nonetheless, I will vote for a Democrat and try to create small acts of daily kindness in a world that is being manipulated toward fear, hatred and violence.
Thanks again for your thoughtful comments.
RF

George Vecsey

2/29/2020 09:13:32 am

Absolutely true Then there is the daily discipline of knowing what you can affect, and what you cannot. Sometimes small acts are huge.
Be well, GV

bruce

2/28/2020 09:32:59 pm

george,

the debates are mostly classic all heat and no light.

imagine being given a minute, or whatever the hell it is, to answer complex questions/issues.

my goodness, listening to a thoughtful answer with an explanation of a few minutes has to be a ratings disaster.

and to think in a nation of 1/3 of a billion people the best it could do is the cretin in chief that this gang of dems is trying to defeat.

as you know, i don't have much faith in the 'folks', and all i can think us that trump and his mini monsters just have to repeat 'democratic socialist'over and over again.

and, presto, four more years.

bruce

George Vecsey

3/1/2020 08:36:23 am

Bruce: I totally agree. I grew up hearing pre-WWII rhetoric still around about the benefits of a "socialist" society. Then trips to Moscow and Havana in 86 and 91 sorted out my thoughts. How was that nice Fidel doing? Great, except I met well-connected people in Havana who got one egg a month, and didn't have soap or shampoo or hot water. They blamed the American "bloqueo." People asked me why Americans could not invest a bit in Cuba to upgrade the housing, and I would say, "Have you ever heard of a man named Trump?" That was in 1991.You are right. Running on a socialist ideology not a great way to reach voters in Middle America, even ones who have seen through Our Fool. GV

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

Stop These "Debates" -- and Caucuses, Too

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