America was left with no good choice.
![Newspaper photo-style black and white image of Donald Trump and Joe Biden at Thursday's presidential debate.](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/b9F1OBf6tZPUyw6VdH7kbOseRus=/0x0:2000x1125/960x540/media/img/mt/2024/06/Election_BidenTrump/original.jpg)
![Newspaper photo-style black and white image of Donald Trump and Joe Biden at Thursday's presidential debate.](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/yAdV77bsJoHgXVtFmR0Ftjuq57A=/0x0:1125x1125/80x80/media/img/mt/2024/06/Election_BidenTrump/original.jpg)
Listen to this article
Created by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.
The first presidential debate of this election cycle is over. It was a truly depressing sight. I don't remember feeling guilty watching a campaign event before, but watching the conversation between Joe Biden and Donald Trump made me feel like I was participating in elder abuse. There is absolutely no appeal in pestering older people with endless questions, as if denying them the dignity of old age.
Biden is particularly at a disadvantage in this process. From the moment he came on stage and muttered his first answer in a quiet, gasping monotone, it was clear that he was too old for the position he now held, and certainly too old for another four-year term. The president has entered the winter of his life. He needs to rest.
Trump, meanwhile, was much the same, albeit somewhat reticent. Now it was more mottled, less bronzed, and his hair had thinned to a soft white blonde, like that of a blonde child. He ignored every question posed to him and repeated bizarre lies (for example, that it doesn't appear that “hundreds of thousands” of people are being killed by immigrants in New York or elsewhere) until time ran out. Biden looked worse, but Trump was anything but sharp.
When asked gently about his age, Biden said he had long been the youngest man in politics and now he was one of the oldest. That response turned to a discussion of “computer chips.” Like two nerds in a nursing home, the men argued about their golf handicaps, as if a low score could convince onlookers that they were healthy. If the debate itself was about assessing the sharpness of the candidates, no one won.
Biden and Trump have engaged substantively on some issues. There was a barely followable exchange on abortion, in which Trump refused to take a typical GOP pro-life stance and instead advised voters to “follow your heart.” They competed over who treated veterans best and bickered over Trump's crazy comments about war deaths. They competed to demonstrate continued support for Israel in its war against Hamas despite the destruction of the Gaza Strip. There were few policies to be debated, but presidential debates aren't about policy, they're about making impressions. And the impression was bad.
In theory, we have reached this point in the workings of democracy: a choice between incompetence and malice. In other words, this is a challenge of our own choosing. But Biden knows one thing. The will of the people can be wrong. When asked if Trump supporters were voting against democracy, he said those who voted for the former president were actually trying to overturn democratic methods and norms. Then there are people in America who want to destroy it. Candidates often accuse the other candidate's supporters of voting against their own best interests, but these voters seem determined to vote against everyone's best interests.
The candidates had some truths and some lies, but there was only one message. truth: Our country is stumbling down the road to hell, and there seems to be no way out. Trump said, “We’re living in a rat’s nest,” and he said it for the wrong reasons. “We’re a bunch of idiots,” he continued. “We’re a failed country.” Of course. But it’s not because of immigrants or Chinese or Russians. This mess was created in America, and we’re all going to suffer because of it.