Meaningless Rage and Outrage on the Debate Stage.

Please. Allow me to quote the conscience of America, Bernie Sanders.

“Kamala Harris did an extremely effective job at the debate in demonstrating how absolutely unfit Trump is to become president. To win, she must expand her agenda to include popular solutions to the most important economic realities facing this country.”

Today we’re going to do a complete review of the Harris/Trump debate, tell you what they said, what they actually meant when they said it, what was missing and why the whole thing was utterly meaningless.

It doesn’t matter who you think won the debate. (Spoiler: It was Harris—by like a mile.)

The point is that we finally have a clear understanding of what each administration would look like. Finely tuned policy prescriptions, clearly articulated foreign and domestic policies and thoughtful and easy-to-comprehend economic platforms...

GOTCHA! Silly gooses. That’s not what we saw.

And it’s not what the debate was even about. It was to see if the Democrats had a candidate who would show up in something other than pajamas, and whether Donald Trump could contain himself under criticism.

So in order, the answers are “yes” and “no.”

Kamala Harris did her job by proving that she’s indeed a youthful, competent, energetic, woman of color—and no she didn’t just decide to be that last one. Trump started off hurling his usual insults and Gish gallop non sequiturs, but he did take the bait when it came to crowd sizes and proceeded to go fully mask off.

In the end, I’m not sure who—if anyone—was swayed by these performances. But that’s actually our word of the day.

Performance: “An act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment.”

And what a performance it was. By everyone. Not only the candidates but the moderators as well. Bravo and brava. They picked the two best looking and most serious people at ABC and had them lob softballs and gotcha questions at the candidates, one of whom prepared doggedly for this live event. The responses to the world’s most mediocre and, with one exception, irrelevant questions were remarkable for how similar they were in substance. Not style. Substance. But if you’re just judging their performances then the reactions to the debate made sense, I guess.

News organizations and online commentators on both the left and the right went out of their way to praise Harris and portray the debate as a definitive victory for her campaign. ‘Trump offered the same old, same old.’ ‘Harris was a breath of fresh, confident air.’ ‘They gave starkly different visions of the next four years based on…’

Based on what?

Not sure. We didn’t exactly learn anything new. And what we learned should actually be pretty troubling to those of us on the left. I know a lot of my friends that bleed blue are going to hate this, but, the debate was confirmation that the two major parties are largely indistinguishable from one another on everything but abortion rights. Less shocking is how the corporate media is incapable of asking questions and follow ups that offer any insight into things that matter.

Are you suggesting it was somehow even? I mean, Trump’s a monster. He tried to overthrow our democracy.

All true. But if you were looking at the debate to, I don’t know, determine how things would be different under a Trump or Harris administration, there’s no difference outside of optics and ickiness.

A Harris administration would likely be stable and competent and it would ensure continuity in major programs from the big spending packages that require time to gestate. Trump would be absolute chaos and we’ve gone through in detail the danger of a second Trump term with control of Congress. Catastrophic. What I’m talking about is the debate specifically.

The only difference between our two esteemed candidates—again, in terms of the questions posed and answers given in the debate—is where they land on reproductive rights. Now, when the abortion issue was raised, Harris was at her absolute best and Trump gave a word salad about state’s rights. We haven’t gone deep on this topic so we should talk this through quickly before we get into the debate.

So specifically, Trump would maintain the status quo and allow the states to determine abortion access. He has not said, though I’m sure we can guess, what he would do if a bill somehow made it to his desk to codify a federal abortion ban into law. Harris meanwhile maintains that she would codify the provisions under Roe v. Wade into federal law if a bill came across her desk. So there’s the difference though, I’m sorry to say, Trump was exactly right that no such bill can even make it this far unless one party gains the majority in both houses and the senate moves to kill the filibuster.

It’s highly unlikely that we’re going to see supermajorities in either house anytime soon. That means two things. A bill for either side can’t make it into law unless the filibuster is killed and that presumes a majority. And there’s no way of constitutionally securing abortion access because we may never see those kinds of majorities again in our lifetimes. Then there’s the Supreme Court route, which is how we arrived in this mess in the first place. A challenge to the existing law could theoretically move all the way to the Supreme Court again over the next couple of decades. But the current composition of the court means that a challenge to their own ruling is not only unlikely to succeed, it wouldn’t even be heard.

So let’s be clear that on reproductive rights, we are fucked.

The takeaway from the debate as it relates to this issue is you have one side that will continue to fight for abortion access and another side that will do anything to end it completely. Both will take a tremendous amount of time but if you are a single issue voter, then the answer is quite clear. Either way, you’re in for the long haul.

As for the balance of the debate, let’s take a look at the questions first. Then we’ll run through how terrifying the responses were if you’re into things like feeding your family, human and civil rights, reducing inequality and preventing genocides and massacres. And then we’ll conclude with what was omitted by the corporate shills behind the moderator desk.

So if we take abortion access off the table, I’ve boiled the questions in a nutshell:

• Are you better off than you were four years ago?
• Can Americans afford higher prices due to tariffs?
• How will you stop border crossings moving forward?
• VP Harris, are you for or against fracking?
• President Trump, did you win or lose the last election?
• What will you, VP Harris, do differently in Gaza?
• President Trump, how would you stop the war in Ukraine?
• VP Harris, do you bear responsibility for how we withdrew from Afghanistan?
• President Trump, Is it appropriate to talk about your opponent’s racial identity?
• President Trump, have you come up with a replacement for Obamacare yet?
• What’s the plan for climate change?

I watched the debate live without taking notes so I wasn’t distracted. Then I read the transcript. Emotionally, I was right there in the moment with pretty much everyone:

She’s kicking his ass.

She’s going to be president.

He’s melting, stupid and oh, so mean.

The whole affair was moderately entertaining and seemed to move quickly, though this whole no audience thing is so fucking weird. Reading the transcript, on the other hand, gave me a chance to really scour their responses for actual answers to try and find out where they stand on the issues. Rather than replay the whole thing and respond as we go, hopefully you trust that I did a competent job distilling it all for you.

Here we go.

Are you better off than you were four years ago?

Harris did not answer the question. But, she did give two of the only three tangible things she would do as president if elected. She would give startup businesses a $50,000 tax deduction and extend the child tax credit to $6,000, up from $2,000 where it’s scheduled for 2025. Trump then rambled about the tariffs he put in place, how inflation is either 21% or 80%, and how immigrants are ruining the country. Harris responded with COVID unemployment, Jan 6 and Project 2025. Trump said he did the pandemic good. And Harris responded by saying how Goldman Sachs, the Wharton School of Business and Nobel laureates all think she’s more qualified because that’s how you connect with the working class. Then Trump showed her the level of his intellect by saying her plan is “Run, Spot Run.”

Can Americans afford higher prices due to tariffs?

Trump basically responded with “Tariffs good, Biden bad, bacon expensive.” When the moderators just glossed over Trump avoiding the question, they did rightly point out to VP Harris that the Biden/Harris administration kept Trump’s tariffs in place to which Harris said Trump sold our chips to China and thanked President Xi for handling COVID. So he called her and her dad Marxists and said he’ll buy her a MAGA hat. Oh, and that she let more migrants into the country than there are people in New York State.

Apparently that was enough for the moderators who then turned to abortion, which we discussed. That took up probably the biggest chunk of time, after which the moderators effortlessly turned to the issue of border crossings and migration policy.

How will you stop border crossings moving forward?

Harris started off by touting her prosecutorial background before saying they had a plan, but Trump called everyone and said, “don’t do it”. Then she remembered the big zinger they rehearsed prior to the debate and said Trump’s rallies are boring. Predictably, Trump took the bait and launched into how his rallies are great, hers are bad, he’s great, America can be great again and also, immigrants are eating people’s pets. As one might suspect, all hell broke loose for a minute, and when the moderators regained control, Harris followed up with how she has endorsements from military figures and Republicans who worked with Mitt Romney and George Bush, and how both Dick and Liz Cheney endorsed her. Wow, so that makes Goldman Sachs, The Wharton School, warmongers and the entire Cheney family now? So down to earth.

Wait, what was the question?

Uh, Immigration. I think.

That’s right! Great job following along. They don’t make it easy. Anyway, Trump did get back on message to say that he would indeed deport, like, 11 million immigrants—though he thinks the number is higher—because they’re all either rapists, drug dealers or criminals. Harris thought that was funny because Trump is actually a criminal but that’s okay because she’s going to bring down grocery prices and help small businesses.

We’re still on immigration, right?

We are. Anyhoo, Trump said he’s not actually a criminal and that all the charges are bogus, and how he probably almost took a bullet to the head because of them. And those were all of the ideas expressed on immigration.

VP Harris, are you for or against fracking?

The moderators pointed out that Harris used to be against fracking and now appears to really support it. And she confirmed that she does indeed support it and made sure to specifically tell the people of Pennsylvania (wink, wink) that she supports and that we need energy from all over the place, and that’s good because she’s also a big fan of oil and drilling for more of it as well because, um, she grew up a middle class kid but Trump grew up rich so she wants to build more houses and protect victims of sexual assault and seniors from getting scammed.

Are we still on immigration, or, wasn’t this a fracking question…I’m so confused.

So then Trump said, my dad was a builder and she wants to defund the police, and “do transgender operations on illegal aliens,” and confiscate your guns. And that he does oil better because she likes windmills. But so does he.

President Trump, did you win or lose the last election?

He said he won. She said he lost. I can’t fucking believe this was a question in the debate. He blamed Nancy Pelosi for January 6 to which Harris responded that he is the leader of the Proud Boys so he said, ‘no I’m not because Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity said I’m not.’ Also, millions of immigrants are coming into the country and Joe Biden sleeps ‘til 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Twelve-and-a-half minutes they spent on this. Twelve-and-a-half.

What will you, VP Harris, do differently in Gaza?

90 seconds. That’s how long her response was to the question. Enough to hit the rehearsed high points and commit to nothing. ‘October 7th. Israel has a right to defend itself. Working around the clock to free the hostages. Too many innocent Palestinians are dying. Iran is a threat. Two state solution.’ Trump gave a more generous 113 seconds to say it wouldn’t have happened if he was still there, Harris hates Israel and hates all Arabs and that she gave Iran $300 billion. Now, for the big follow up. You ready for this?

Moderator: “He said you hate Israel.”

Oh. Okay. That’s a strange follow up question. Harris, of course, said she loves Israel but that Trump loves Putin and Kim Jong Un. So he said Putin endorsed her just last week and that she killed the Keystone Pipeline and helped Putin build the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline.

And thus concluded the entire section on the massacre in Gaza. The candidates and corporate execs at Disney-owned ABC must have been so relieved.

President Trump, how would you stop the war in Ukraine?

This question led to what might have been Harris’ biggest blunder. Trump goes down the familiar route of blaming NATO and saying how this never would have happened on his watch, because the whole world is afraid of him. And this is where she blew it. She revealed that she met with President Zelenskyy just days before the invasion to warn him of it, And then visited allies in the region to let them know. And that if the Biden administration didn’t requisition the funds to support Ukraine’s defense Putin would be “sitting in Kyiv right now.”

And that’s when he pounced. “She is a horrible negotiator. They sent her in to negotiate. As soon as they left Putin did the invasion.”

Not great. I should also mention that neither one of them actually answered the question. Again.

VP Harris, do you bear responsibility for how we withdrew from Afghanistan?

Harris had the clear upper hand here because she pointed out how dummy promised to get us out of Afghanistan but didn’t, and how the Biden/Harris administration did. And how his big idea was to invite the Taliban to Camp David, which apparently was the most offensive thing about our time in Afghanistan.

Seems rather polite if you ask me.

And then Trump said arguably the most fucking gangster thing uttered in a debate since Ted Cruz promised to make the sand in the Middle East glow: “And I told Abdul don’t do it anymore, you do it anymore you’re going to have problems. And he said why do you send me a picture of my house? I said you’re going to have to figure that out, Abdul.”

The moderators literally just moved on like they were witnesses to a mob killing and refused to talk to the cops.

President Trump, Is it appropriate to talk about your opponent’s racial identity?

He said, “I don’t care. I don’t care what she is. Whatever she wants to be is fine with me.”

The funniest thing about this exchange was that Harris came back at Trump by talking about his past as a developer and seemed to have trouble finding the word “landlord,” but we all know it’s because she was going to say “slumlord,” but you’re not allowed to say that anymore. I was happy that she brought up his treatment of the Central Park 5. Old news but important to remember that racism is encoded in this fucking guy’s DNA.

President Trump, have you come up with a replacement for Obamacare yet?

You’re not going to believe this but he hasn’t. Like, at all. But he did say he’s been thinking a lot about it and that he’ll have something ready and it’s gonna be great. Just you wait. Meanwhile, Harris talked extensively at this point about the need to ultimately move to a single-payer system, preferably Medicare for all, because we’re the only developed nation in the world without universal healthcare and the private insurance system is driving up costs while contributing to worsening outcomes.

Wait, are you serious? How did I miss that?

Jokes! Just jokes, folks. She did say that she and Tim Walz are both gun owners and they’re not coming for your guns. I mean, she did come back to the question by praising John McCain for saving the Affordable Care Act. And that they’ve reduced the cost of some prescription drugs. Then Trump came back at her for the McCain thing but the moderators cut him off to ask them both a super important question:

What’s the plan for climate change?

Harris said that she’s super proud of the trillion dollar investment into clean energy because she’s working with the unions to bring back manufacturing, so that’s good. And Trump responded by saying they’re building cars in Mexico, so tariffs. Both of these responses were good enough for the moderators so they cut to commercial and came back with closing statements.

Wait. That was it?

That was it.

Closing Statements

In the closing statements Harris reviewed her tax deduction for startups, the expanded child tax credit, and remembered to say that her plan also includes help with a downpayment of $25,000 for first-time home buyers. For what it’s worth—and I know I’m a broken record with this—a tax credit is often missed because it’s a posthumous event, relies on knowing how to fill out a tax return, and only makes sense if your income is at a threshold high enough to feel the benefit of a credit. Direct payments make way more sense, and our experience with these payments during the pandemic gave us the proof we need that they actually lift people out of poverty.

A $25,000 credit for a first-time home is great, but how would that work? No one knows. Also, it does nothing to prevent home owners from just raising prices and doesn’t help out the 55% of Americans who rent because they don’t qualify for a conventional mortgage.

And the $50,000 tax credit for startup businesses. (Sigh). Do you know how much cash flow this theoretical start up business would have to be doing for this to be meaningful? I have some questions, like…

• How many years is that good for, considering most startups lose money in the first three to five years?
• Does it mean I get to put $50,000 against my bottom line income to reduce my income tax exposure?
• Let’s say my business makes $100,000 net income in the third year, but I have losses in the first two of more than that. I would have carry forward losses to put against that net income so this wouldn’t benefit me until I worked through those, right?
• So can I take it in year four?
• If so, and I have the same net income of $100,000 then that means that only $50,000 is taxable, right?
• And if the corporate tax rate is, let’s say 21%, then my tax liability in that 4th year would be $10,500 instead of $21,000, right?

So this startup business plan would save me $10,500 in my fourth year of business assuming I made it that far, which is unlikely because 90% of all startups fail within this time frame.

Okay, okay. Relax. No one knows what you’re talking about. Pull it back.

Sorry.

What about Trump’s closing statement?

Oh. Um, let’s see...She’s a liar. She’s going to ban fracking like Germany did, and now Germany is doing it again because they realized it was a mistake and that the world leaders love him the most and she’ll bring about world war three and that it will be a nuclear war at that.

Look, they only have 90 minutes. What else could they have covered?

Well, for starters, did we need to relitigate the stolen election conspiracy or revisit how we left Afghanistan? Probably not.

Did we need to center the economic hardship among American families around whether or not tariffs work? (And for the record, this administration didn’t just maintain the Trump tariffs, they doubled down on them.)

Instead of talking about climate change and fossil fuel dependence, we just needed to get on the record which candidate loves fracking more?

So what would you have preferred?

I’ve run through this list before. As a progressive and as a thinking, feeling person in the world who thinks about this shit all day, every day, there were a few things missing from the conversations.

Stuff like...

• How socialist style policies contributed to the economic recovery of the nation by supporting poor and working class families during the pandemic and why we’ve eliminated every one of them since then.
• There was no serious talk or questions about the Inflation Reduction Act and American Rescue Plan, two of the most consequential pieces of legislation since the Great Society programs.
• No talk of widening inequality and the crushing consumer and household debt the vast majority of Americans are experiencing.
• No path forward for citizenship for migrants living in this country or how to fix our broken immigration system outside of closing the border and continuing to criminalize immigration.
• A diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine.
• Halting the sale of arms to Israel.
• Refinancing student debt at low to no interest rates.
• Direct payments instead of tax credits to poor families.
• Free public college.
• Funding for public schools.
• Breaking up big banks and big Ag.
• Repealing Citizens United.
• Campaign finance reform.
• Full decriminalization of marijuana.
• Eliminating the social security contribution cap.
• Reclassifying broadband as a utility to guarantee high speed internet access.
• Permanent union protections to bolster the efforts of the current NLRB.
• Eliminating the carried interest provision.
• Incentives for biodiversity in agriculture.
• Ending fossil fuel subsidies.
• Windfall taxes on corporate profiteers.
• Regulating the rollout of dangerous AI technology.
• Abolishing private prisons.
• Coordinated housing, addiction and mental health funding.
• Reparations for indigenous nations.
• A prohibition on stock trading for federal elected officials.

To name a few.

Outside of the questions that really should have been cut, we got questions on tariffs, fracking, stopping the flow of migrants, Obamacare, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and a perfunctory closing question on climate change. And here’s the thing. In the minimal amount of space the candidates gave to actually provide answers and in the massive amount of evidence we have from both of their time in office, I can tell you that their answers are nearly identical. And that should scare the shit out of all of us.

• Both candidates are in favor of increasing tariffs, which only harms the American consumer.
• Both candidates expanded oil and gas drilling in the United States and are committing to do more.
• Both candidates have extreme border policies.
• Neither candidate has an answer for ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and neither is contemplating cutting off military and financial support to Israel for sure.
• Neither candidate has a plan to reduce the cost of healthcare or even contemplate a path toward universal healthcare or Medicare for all.
• And neither candidate has a meaningful plan to combat climate change outside of investing in more manufacturing. The only question is whether we create green manufacturing jobs or so-called traditional ones.

Now, look. Just because this debate was meaningless doesn’t mean they all are. I mean, the last one changed the entire race when Biden came apart at the seams in front of our eyes. The debate between Carter and Reagan offered sharply different visions for America, even if we bought into the wrong one. The first televised debate between Kennedy and Nixon probably won Kennedy just enough support on optics alone to eke out that election. So sometimes they really do matter. This one, not so much.

If you’re a Harris supporter, you’re pretty pumped up because she took it to him personally in a way we wish we all could. Trump reminded everyone that he’s a low energy, low IQ, mean spirited xenophobe without an ideological care in the world. And he looks like that pumpkin on your doorstep you try picking up in early December because you left your Halloween decorations up for too long.

If you’re a Trump supporter, you loved the red meat and anger he threw out there because you’re mad too. And you seized on the fact that Harris touted support from elite institutions and figures as evidence that she’s just another latte sipping coastal elite.

I like to think Unf*ckers operate on a much higher level than this; we listen for the things that weren’t said and notice how aligned the parties are on the things that were.

Outside of abortion access, respect for democracy, tone and the ability to form a coherent sentence, the parties are indistinguishable from one another. Mind you, supporting an anyone-but-Trump strategy is fine with me, even as a progressive, because there are literally no other options for this one job. It’s what we got.

My concern is more for the people that don’t watch the debate.

• The single parent.
• The unemployed worker.
• The low wage laborer or gig worker.
• Student.
• The family members working multiple jobs to barely afford rent and food.
• The homeless child.
• Unemployed worker on disability addicted to painkillers.
• The terrified immigrant who escaped uncertainty or far worse.
• The middle-class worker without a pension who can barely afford health insurance coverage. The retiree working part-time as a Walmart greeter because social security isn’t enough to cover living expenses.
• In other words, most of America.

That’s who I’m concerned about. Because while the corporate media pats itself on the back for managing to contain the conversation and hit the commercial break mark and the pundits trip over themselves to declare their side the winner, the real loser of this debate is the American people.

Here endeth the lesson.