You Can't Argue With Crazy

My thoughts on the last 10 days of politics.

Part 1: You Can’t Argue With Crazy

The debate should never have been suggested or agreed to. It should never have been scheduled. There is no scenario where a debate with Trump would turn out well. Not for Biden, and not for anyone. Because you can’t argue with crazy. A debate, a discussion, or an argument having an effective or productive outcome, depends on people or parties who perceive the same reality. But Trump does not perceive the same reality as most people. He lives in his own bizarro reality where he had record-breaking crowds at his inauguration instead of vast swaths of obviously empty chairs, where he won the 2020 election instead of losing so badly that even the courts he stacked didn’t reverse the outcome, where information about his relationship with Epstein and the young girls he raped doesn’t exist, where he has the physical presence of a super-hero instead of being the gross human who publicly snored and farted his way through his own trial, where he’s an actual billionaire instead of a broke crook who uses campaign fundraisers to pay his legal bills.

I learned this lesson early because I grew up in a family with mental health issues, including an aunt who lived in our home, but who also lived in a different reality than you or I — she heard the compelling voices of people who didn’t exist. I enjoy a good a lively debate, but I learned right away that you can’t argue with crazy. It will never produce any type of positive outcome. (And yes, I know some people don’t like the word crazy, but when my mental health problems are at their worst, and my brain isn’t working well, and depression is lying to me and convincing me of a false reality, crazy is the word that fits me best.)

I don’t pretend that Trump has the same mental health problems that my aunt had or that I have. I’m not a mental health professional and would never attempt to diagnose him. But anyone who has observed him even a little bit can confirm that he doesn’t recognize reality.

Along these lines, Trump’s team of lawyers could make their lives easier if they hired a programmer to make Trump a Twitter-style app that only Trump can see. The programmer could auto-fill the app with old tweets from 2016-2020 written by a hundred thousand users so that the app looks like it’s really active. The programmer could set up the app so that whenever Trump tweeted on the fake app, within minutes his tweet would show 1 million likes and thousands of bot-generated comments — every like, every comment, totally pretend. It could be the same comments every time, just mix up the order. The number of likes could regularly rise — 2 million, then 3 million, then 4 million likes, so that Trump always feels like his approval is growing. Trump would be the only actual user on the app. No one else would ever seen anything he was tweeting.  He could type up whatever offensive nonsense or unreality comes to his mind. His lawyers wouldn’t need to monitor him, his team wouldn’t need to edit him. Trump would never notice it was all bots. The app would align with Trump’s reality, so he would never doubt its accuracy for even a moment.

You might be reading this idea and thinking: holy cow, yes, I can see how this would totally work. And just think about that for a minute. That’s how crazy he is.

You might be thinking: Biden just needed to do x or y differently during the debate. Or: Another person would have nailed Trump during the debate. You are wrong. It didn’t matter that Biden had a cold; being sick or healthy wouldn’t have changed anything. Biden prepped for the debate, but didn’t need to; prep or no prep wouldn’t have changed anything. A different candidate, no matter their age, or their lack of speech impediment, wouldn’t have changed anything. Because you can’t argue with crazy. It’s not possible. You can’t use logic with someone who doesn’t think logically. You can’t effectively respond with facts to someone who lives in a wacko reality where those facts don’t exist. You can’t have a productive conversation with someone who doesn’t hear or understand the questions he’s being asked. There is no one who could or would “do well” in a debate with Trump, because it’s not a debate.

Some people have wished that a journalist would interview Trump and just press him on the same question over and over until he answers. But that’s no good. That tactic assumes Trump is a ‘normal’ person who responds normally to things. He’s not and he doesn’t. You will never get an honest or satisfying answer. You can’t argue with crazy. 

How should someone prep for the next debate with Trump? They shouldn’t. The solution isn’t different prep. The solution is: Stop giving Trump a platform. Stop giving him a microphone. Stop treating him as if he’s valid candidate worthy of having a conversation with. He’s not. He’s not worth it. He’s not worth our efforts. He never will be.

Part 2: Biden Is The Candidate

I don’t know who is paying whose bills, but I know this: no one suggesting or demanding that Biden should drop out has America’s best interests in mind. 

- Biden doesn’t need to be replaced. He is actively doing his job while also running for President. His schedule is public. Go take a look. He is extremely active — and not just campaigning, he’s also doing the full-time work of being the current President, reading daily briefs, keeping up with global news, criss-crossing the world and the country. During book tours, I have had a little taste of what it’s like to hop time zones and host events and need to be on my A-game every day, delivering high energy appearances every time. And it wiped me out. I’m only 50, but I don’t pretend I could handle Biden’s schedule for more than a week. He’s clearly in great shape. If he couldn’t do his job, we would know, because he wouldn’t be doing it.

- Age isn’t universal. When my father was my age he was very ill and was at the end of his life. My father would eventually die at 52. But I’m quite healthy, not like my father at all. All 50 year olds are not created equal. And neither are all 80 year olds. Comparing Biden to your Great Aunt who is his same age and is in hospice isn’t really helpful. Obviously, Biden is a unicorn. May we all have the energy and presence at 81 that Biden does. If we did, it would be a completely different world. 

- If he ever needs to be replacement, the replacement is already in place. That’s literally part of the job of the Vice-President. We don’t vote just for Biden, we vote for Biden-Harris. If at some point Biden can no longer show up for the job, Kamala Harris is already in place to take over. And it’s not just Biden-Harris — a Biden-Harris vote means we get the whole executive team. 

On this topic, it’s hard to ignore: the Venn diagram of the people calling for Biden to step down and the people who aren’t okay with a Black woman being President, sure looks like a perfect circle.

- We can’t ignore the practical facts. The election is only a few months away. In other countries that might be enough time, but in the U.S. we have a very long election season, and we’re already in the final stages of that election season. Primaries have happened, the people have overwhelming voted for Biden-Harris. Ballots can’t be changed. It’s too late to raise money from scratch. But more than all of that, the assumption that Democrats trying to agree on a new candidate would go well or fairly or wouldn’t just cause more division, is ridiculous.

- Trust Black Women. Watch who is asking Biden to step down. It’s mostly rich white men, and a few rich white women — big red flags that this move won’t benefit the vast majority of Americans. In 2020, Biden wasn’t my first choice, he wasn’t my 5th choice, and for a long time, I didn’t even understand that he had a real shot at the presidency. Then South Carolina happened, and Black Women — the driving force and moral core of the Democratic Party — threw their support behind Biden, and the rest of the Dems got in line. From what I can see, Black Women are sticking with Biden. So I am following their lead.

In addition, all of the possible replacement suggestions for Biden have come out in support of Biden staying in the race. So you could also choose to trust Dem leadership.

- The media asks every Dem to step down, every time. This is not a new thing. We have short memories, but it’s the same playbook we’ve seen every election. There is no Dem candidate that will ever be good enough for the pundits. I’m old enough to remember when Hilary Clinton was beloved by the media. I remember there were calls for Obama to step down and to let Hillary run instead and save the day. After Obama, when Hillary eventually did declare her candidacy, she became enemy number one of the media overnight. BUT HER EMAILS! Don’t be fooled. The media does this every time.

- Don’t align yourself with people who want to elect Trump. Heather Cox Richardson, everyone’s favorite historian, has confirmed: “If you change a presidential nominee at this point in the game, the candidate loses.”

If Fox News wants this, and Republican Leadership want Biden to step down, it’s only because they think it will help elect Trump. Don’t align yourself with Fox News.

We’ve all also noticed the NYT and Washington post (among others) are also obsessed with this topic. There are lots of suggested explanations out there — the owners of these publications are Trump supporters, they make more money when things are chaotic (and anything involving Trump is more chaotic), close elections = higher media spending, etc..

Whatever their reasons, know this: people who are calling for Biden to step down are working to elect Trump. They can deny it all they want, but this is a fact: Either Biden or Trump will be elected. Those are the candidates. If you’re calling for Biden to step down, then you’re working to elect Trump.

- Now is not the time. I hate the electoral college. I hate how much money is in elections. I hate how long the election season is. I hate that it’s only two parties and we don’t have ranked-choice voting. The whole thing is ripe for reform and there are so many good ideas for how to improve our electoral system. But now is not the time to fight for complete election reform. We have to get a big win. We have to get a win that is so big that it gives Dems an advantage that is Manchin-proof and Sinema-proof (or whoever the next fake Dems turn out to be). Until there’s a big advantage, Congress will be too polarized for Dems to get the big things done, and all our energy will have to go to simply preventing Republicans from doing their worst.

Part 3: This is a distraction. Focus on Project 2025 instead.

Some of you, like me, have been hearing and reading about Project 2025 for months. Others may have only heard of it this week or right now reading this newsletter. Project 2025 is a 900-page plan that Republicans have put forward, detailing what they will do if Trump wins the election. And describing their plan as extreme doesn’t come close to doing it justice. It’s bad. It’s really bad.

Image via Brittanica

There are some great explainers out there for anyone who doesn’t have time to read 900 pages of fascist extremism. Here are a few:

-John Oliver did a show about Project 2025.

-From Qasim Rashid — Project 2025 Invites Fascism to America.

-For anyone who uses Reddit, here’s a subreddit on how to defeat Project 2025.

-A simple and quick explainer largely focused on the Project 2025 LGBTQ-related issues from GLAAD.

-Project 2025 Explained from Red, Wine, and Blue.

-Or, to see the true horror, go to the Project 2025 website, click on the chapters that interest you and skim through them.

Think Project 2025 won’t affect you? Think again. Overtime pay. Birth control and IVF. Any books or media with homosexual characters. Social Security. Public schools. And on and on and on.

These last 10+ days of media malfunction over Biden are a harmful distraction. A distraction from Project 2025, and a distraction from our corrupt Supreme Court majority which is actively and openly trying to get Trump elected and make him a dictator.

Don’t fall for the distraction. A Democratic party united behind Biden is the biggest possible threat to Republicans and to Trump. So don’t fall for anything trying to divide us.