Show Must Go On

In September 2020, the first debate between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump took place and I wrote an article about that entitled “Presidential debates - old men quarrel.” Neither contender clearly won that debate, nor the next one which took place in October 2020.

It is almost impossible to clearly win (as well as lose) these debates because it is always a show of emotions, and not an establishment of truth. The contenders spout off figures and facts that basically have nothing to do with reality, but the goal in an emotional dispute is to impress the public (and, if possible, the opponent), rather than establishing the truth. Fact checking after a debate is usually of no interest to anyone except journalists and analysts.
The purpose of the debate is to have a fight, give the audience emotions, increase the popularity of the candidate among his followers and end in a draw. Truth almost cannot be born in such a situation. And people love to watch emotional fights. They get comfortable on their couches, get their popcorn, beer, etc., and cheer for “their” candidate. Again, there is something to talk about with the neighbors — just like after a football match.
However, in football, as a rule, there is an objective indicator - the score of the match and, therefore, the objective winner, but in political debates the winner is unclear and each contender (and his followers) always remains convinced in their victory.

And a political show is also different from a football match because of the fact that based on their impressions, people then choose a president who will lead the country somewhere for 4 years. What if he leads the country in the wrong direction? And people chose him themselves... In particular, based on their emotions from an emotional show, but emotions can easily make a mountain out of a molehill and vice versa.

So, isn’t that silly? Certainly. However, this stuff has been working well for many years. First and main trouble on earth is a bad head which keeps you misled.
The people need “bread and circuses” and then they will not think about their problems. Okay, here’s another emotional spectacle created especially for you. Enjoy, root for your candidate/party, vote, and stay away from any questions.

How did the 2024 debate differ from the 2020 debate?

On June 27, 2024, a debate took place between the same candidates heading into the next presidential election in November 2024. This show was watched by 51.3 million people and it was basically as meaningless as in 2020. The candidates instead of analyzing the situation in the country and finding an answer to the question “what to do” basically answered the question “who is to blame” and had blamed each other for all the problems of the US. They also lied (as Mr. Trump usually does) and got confused about the numbers (as Mr. Biden has been doing lately). NBC News wrote about that:
«Forget alternative facts and political spin: Thursday's presidential debate was more like a tsunami of falsity. President Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of misinformation on topics from terrorism to taxes during the first debate of the 2024 general election, while President Joe Biden flubbed figures and facts about military deaths and insulin prices.»

From my subjective point of view, several things have changed since 2020:
1. The debate took place unusually early - in June, even before the major party conventions which should officially name contenders for the presidency from both parties.
2. The organizers very correctly turned off the microphone of one speaker to give another one the opportunity to speak, otherwise Mr. Trump would again fill the entire broadcast as he did in 2020.
3. The June debates were organized by CNN, bypassing the Commission on Presidential Debates which had sponsored all presidential and vice presidential debates since 1988.
4. Probably the most important difference and why it was still worth holding these debates: many people saw that Mr. Biden had noticeably lost, aged, and practically confirmed his physical inability to lead the country for the next 4 years. Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director in the Biden administration until 2023, said about that on CNN: “His biggest issue was to prove to the American people that he had the energy, the stamina — and he didn’t do that.”

The Guardian newspaper has summed up the debate the best from my point of view: «Trump did not win the debate but Biden certainly lost it.»

Both candidates at the debate did not show a comprehensive understanding of the country’s problems and a holistic vision of solving them. Why vote for any of them then?

The contenders mostly exchanged barbs and got personal with each other as it should be in an emotional show, but in between they also touched upon important problems of the country which they blamed the opponent for, and attributed real or fictitious achievements to themselves. These were issues of immigration and US border security, terrorism, economics (inflation and taxes), foreign policy and international trade, environment, health care, abortion, medication prices, etc.

I have already written about some of these issues before and would like to briefly touch on the most important ones for the Americans (according to recent polls of Gallup, Inc.): immigration, poor leadership/government, the country's economy, and high cost of living/inflation.
Both candidates lied, confused figures and did not show a comprehensive understanding of the country’s problems and a holistic vision of their solution.

1. The issue of immigration has recently bothered up to 28% of Americans (22% in June 2024). This had its effect and Mr. Biden was forced to issue an executive order on June 4, that prevents migrants from seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border when crossings surge. Thus, we can say that there is some kind of democracy in the US and sometimes it works. The government takes a very long time to see its mistakes, but at some point it can no longer not to notice them. Now enlightenment has descended on Democrats regarding immigration, thanks mainly to the upcoming presidential election this year and the same public opinion polls. So, is it a good idea to hold presidential elections once a year to strengthen feedback from the people to the government?

2. Poor leadership of the US government worried 20% of Americans in June 2024, and that was right: when partners find no more consent their business isn’t worth a cent. Open mutual hatred of Republicans and Democrats is the most obvious problem in the US, which the past debates of presidential candidates have only emphasized.
The country is polarized, and therefore paralyzed by the confrontation between the two main parties (this causes a stagnation), and it is clear that they are not able to come to an agreement themselves. Only the people can force them to do this, but they (people) don’t know how to fulfill that.
The Americans have gone to two extremes: they either participated too actively in the political process of the country under the leadership of “their” party (and thereby split the country), or they did not participate at all, but in any case, they have given the entire political process into the hands of the same parties. Nothing will change here and the confrontation between “active” supporters of both parties will continue until the rapid (Trump-President) or slow (Biden-President, etc.) collapse of the country into pieces.

3. The country's economy in general and high cost of living/inflation in particular concerned 16% and 14% of the Americans respectively in June 2024. These 2 points can be combined into one because they are interrelated and I have already written quite a lot on this topic.
In short:
- the economy of each country is created by the people with their labor, and politics only distributes what has been created.
- the people of the US are fulfilling their part of the social contract well, but the politics is doing poorly, and it appears that this is being done deliberately. Since approximately 1989, the US has been living beyond its means under all subsequent Democratic and Republican presidents/administrations and has been steadily deteriorating due to the debts, inflation and corruption.
- inflation is the increase in money supply in financial system of the country which is artificially created by the Federal Reserve for a long time. The more money are injected into the economy (usually it is done in the form of loans) the more money which is already in circulation is depreciated. This is the Fed's monetary policy. Neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Trump really understand what inflation is, and the head of the Fed and their other advisers (if they do understand) do not explain it to them. I think that both presidential candidates don’t really want to figure that out.
- running into debts and the depreciation of money allow the US elites to outpace inflation with their income, because after many years they pay back much less than they borrowed. Ordinary Americans can't keep up with inflation and are getting poorer. The elites write laws for the entire country, but do not live by them, so they have access to different incomes (including corruption), expenses (including the use of shell and offshore companies) and investment opportunities.
- most of the people’s earnings are taken away by inflation, and salaries and wages go towards daily expenses, taxes, medicine, medications, education, etc., so here the division of the nation into the poor/rich and complaints of ordinary Americans about the too high cost of living in the country come from. Then the elites convince people that this is normal, and they just need to invest wisely - in the stock market, US Treasury bonds, etc. However, these are again the businesses of the elites, and possible income is subject to taxes. The elites enrich themselves at the expense of the people who trust them. This is not good, but the ignorant people just let that happen.


Unfortunately, the Americans do not see or understand all of the above, but they feel well that prices for everything increased noticeably a couple of years ago and remain at the same level, despite cheerful government reports about a significant reduction of inflation. Stephen S. Roach, a faculty member at Yale University and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia has devoted an entire article to this phenomenon and there he stated, that “… Since January 2021, price levels remain especially elevated for energy (41%), transportation (40%), shelter (22%), and food (21%), which together account for 63% of the typical US consumer’s basket of goods and services. They are called essential purchases for good reason: families can’t live without them.»

Incorrect and correct voting.

The change in position of Mr. Biden and the Democrats about the illegal immigration shows that the government can still be somehow influenced (especially before the elections). Republicans are also already faced the fact that their negative attitude towards abortion helped the Democrats to win elections. However, the problem of banning abortion, which Democrats count on much, now concerns much fewer Americans (only 3%) than 2 years ago (then they were 8%).

So, yes, you need to vote correctly. And both parties are desperately urging the people to go and express their will at the polls. And the people, basically, go and vote, but they don’t vote exactly the way they want, which means it’s wrong and, most importantly, to their own detriment.

It turns out that if you vote for Republicans, then you automatically vote for abortion (which, in my opinion, is wrong) and for the sale of assault weapons without verifying the identity of the buyer (which, in my opinion, is also wrong), but for the restrictions on immigration (which I think is right) and against LGBT (I consider this is neither right nor wrong because it’s a trend in the development/decline of humanity, i.e. it just exists and will continue to grow regardless of what we think about that).

If you vote for Democrats, then you are automatically against abortion (in my opinion, right), against unlimited gun sales (in my opinion, it’s also right), but for free immigration (in my opinion, wrong) and pro-LGBT (not right and not wrong).

And probably the most important (for me) thing. You get inflation, rising prices and depreciation of your money if a candidate from any party comes to power. Inflation is a very profitable business for the elites. The same thing happens in other countries, because all central banks (in America - the Fed) follow the vicious economic policies of J. M. Keynes and create inflation for the elites that works against the people.
So decide - are you for inflation and the depreciation of your money or against?


It turns out that none of the candidates and parties fully expresses your unique (correct for you) point of view. There is no such party or independent candidate in the US. Why then do you vote for the part of what you need? When will you get everything in one package?
The correct answer here is never. Why?

Because you have never figured out for yourself what you want to receive from your country, constantly giving it your labor, energy, health, taxes, children and, ultimately, life. You don’t know this and, naturally, you can’t articulate that to your representatives in government, and they only argue among themselves and offer you halved solutions, you divide into parts and everyone votes for the favorite party, thereby splitting the nation and simply increasing the mess in the country.
Isn’t it clear that you vote for stagnation and collapse?

After the debate there will be election. The question remains: who to vote for if both candidates are unsuitable?

So, Americans again have to choose between an evil and unscrupulous (but outwardly healthy) troll and a frail and forgetful (but often optimistic and well-mannered) professional politician. Both are quite old (78 and 81). Both often consciously or subconsciously lie/make mistakes in their speeches. Both blame each other for all the country's problems. One is a convicted felon, and another spent 50 years in government at the highest positions and failed to improve anything in the country (and maybe even worsened it).
I don't even know which is better.

The fact is that the activities of D. Trump and J. Biden as presidents cannot be somehow objectively assessed - there are no general criteria here, or rather, each American has their own ones. However, there is data from public opinion polls on this matter. Please, take a look at the presidential job approval rating for D. Trump and J. Biden by week of their term.

Mr. Biden had an approval rate of 39.55% in week 178 (this is now), while Mr. Trump had 42.2% in the same 178th week while being in office. In the future, almost nothing will change, except that Mr. Trump may go to prison for all his criminal cases and, if re-elected, he will govern the country from a prison cell. Here I cannot guess what his approval rating as president will be, but this will definitely not increase the current approval rating of Mr. Biden’s activities as president.

I want to say that if the activities of any president in any country are supported by about 40% of citizens, this means that about 60% are against or are indifferent, and all the initiatives of such a president will end in nothing. We have that in the US now, when Mr. Biden cancels Mr. Trump's reforms, and Mr. Trump will cancel Mr. Biden's ones. This is called stagnation. 40% of the country's population cannot make 60% move.

Well, Americans, will you continue in the same spirit? Will you choose another problem with an average support of about 40% for four more years and prolong the stagnation of the country?


The latest Biden-Trump debate did reveal an important truth: Mr. Biden is very weak both mentally and physically. It's better not to choose him.
Also, it’s better not to choose Mr. Trump because he is a scoundrel, liar, cheater and traitor.

So the correct answer here is still the same: you don’t need to vote for anyone, because both candidates are not suitable. Moreover, voting against everyone or ignoring the elections is a very strong position of the American people that they are not aware of. I explained this in some detail in one of my previous articles. Nobody forces Americans to vote for any party/candidate. The people are free to vote “against all” or not to vote if they dislike all candidates. Big election turnout is needed just by the ruling parties in order to justify their stay in power “on behalf of all the people.”

The ruling parties will never leave and will always impose their propaganda on people and organize all kinds of shows — rallies, primaries, caucuses and debates. Show must go on. Then it is up to the Americans to participate in these shows or not. The parties themselves cannot do anything without the people - neither work, nor fight, nor win the elections.


P.S. Two old men desperately fighting for the highest post in the US remind me of the venerable age of the rulers of the USSR before the collapse of the country. As for me, such an old age of the top state officials is a sign of degeneration and decline of the nation.