THE SPECTACLE OF AMERICAN ELECTORAL POLITICS INHERENTLY FAVORS FASCISM

Joe Biden should not agree to another debate with Donald Trump. End of story. There is nothing won by it, and all it accomplishes is giving Trump the opportunity to further damage the country by delivering the kind of clarion call to violent, racist neo-fascists like he did last night. 

We may want to hold on to the belief that debates are a necessary part of our election process because they give voters the opportunity to hear candidates articulate and advocate for their policies. That's not what happens in reality though, and we need to acknowledge it. Right now, the inherent spectacle favors fascism. Is there a substantive policy discussion going on today? No. Not only are adherents to the Cult of Trump running around claiming victory, and generally being the irrational group of insecure neurotics they are all the time, Democrats and centrists are all bathing in memes and gifs out of the very necessary and understandable instinct to find some humor in this madness, while also often unthinkingly participating in the implicit endorsement of the kind of competitive, ultra insecure masculinity which drives Trump and which inspires so much of his support. 

The existence of last nights debate did nothing but support the fascist tendencies of American politics, explicitly through Trump's endorsement of a fascist street gang, and implicitly in many other ways, not limited to the many attempts at levity built on using traditional ideas about masculinity to insult Trump's masculinity or that of his followers. The entire thing is a losing prospect in our current context. 

There is a focus  in most media outlets on Trump's refusal to denounce white supremacy, which is factually true, but also not the entire story. He gave them a rallying cry and a signal of his perspective on them as people he can, and presumably will, call on. The Proud Boys are a violent, racist, neo-fascist  gang with aspirations at more, and what Trump just gave them, in their minds, is legitimacy. All of the members of the other violent far right groups are going to recognize it as a rallying cry as well. We're three months away from an election the man has explicitly stated he is not going to recognize if he doesn't win, and he's using a nationally televised debate to tell violent, neo-fascist thugs to "stand by." 

It will be irresponsible of Joe Biden to participate in giving Trump another opportunity like this. All of the bemoaning the performance of Chris Wallace is essentially useless. Short of stopping the debate altogether or cutting Trump's mic, it would be possible to prevent the kind of performance from last night. Nothing in the the last 30 years of Donald Trump's public appearances, most especially the years since the beginning of the 2016 election cycle, suggest it. Mike Wallace could have made more attempts or more well thought through attempts, but Mike Wallace isn't the problem. Maybe there is a moderator who may be more stern with him. None of it stops him from issuing more statements to the  people in the country who are genuinely hoping to be able to commit violence in the name of punishing their perceived enemies and continuing to shake the confidence of the nation in its elections. 

This problem is centered in the America political industry, and our own suicidal attachment to American Exceptionalism. The political industry is built on these spectacles, and it is an incredibly profitable industry. To acknowledge holding a debate is not in anyone's best interest, means acknowledging the American political system is capable of producing a candidate which is completely uninterested in it's norms, traditions, and ultimately, it's stated goals. Acknowledging there is a could be a difference between the stated goals of the political industry and the actual goals of the political industry is a thing which the industry has been built to prevent. Acknowledging going on with our political "business as usual" is inherently aiding fascists to dismantle an hope of ever achieving something a democracy, is too much for us. 

 The American political industry has also been built as a profit center, where the product is the illusion of The United States the majority of likely voters have been living with for 40 years or more. One part of this illusion is American Exceptionalism. Remember, "We're already great!" as a response to "Make America Great Again"? When counted against eligible voters, the number of people who actually vote is a sizable minority, then the winning of the election is decided by an even smaller number of people than that. It is an industry which is increasingly expensive each cycle, and relies on a very small minority to decide what representation is going to look like. It is within the best interests of everyone in this industry, to keep insuring the pool of voters they have to convince is small, and the smaller the better. It means they only have to tailor the vision of American being spoken to and represented to a small group, which is bother easier, and essentially making more for less. 

As we've been reminded of repeatedly in the last 30 years, it doesn't even take a majority of the votes cast to win the election, so it is a minority of the actual voters, who are a minority of the eligible voters who can win a presidential election, and the targeting of who these campaigns are focusing on addressing and attracting has not changed, in spite of the fact that the entire process is attracting a minority of eligible voters in the first place. In truth, because roughly the same percentage of the pool of likely voters are party identified, the decision ends up being made by the "unaffiliated" or "undecided" voter. In this case, whatever has put a likely voter, who intends to vote for one of the to major party candidates, in the category of "undecided" can not be related to anything which can be measured as rationality. Understand what it says, overall, about the state of the nation that this excruciatingly small minority of people who it is incredibly hard to see as connected to anything like a rational adjudication of the material universe we exist in, are an extraordinary amount of the focus of this process. 

All of this favors fascists as well, because fascism is an ideology which is specifically developed so a minority manipulating liberalism democracy can gain power through projecting itself as the majority, being undermined by an "hostile foreign minority." It's one of the reasons that focusing on bringing in eligible voters who haven't been "likely voters" is a natural bulwark against fascism. It means having to expand the understanding of the lived experience of voters, and the desires of those voters for the future.

In reality, because Donald Trump's appeal to his base is so thoroughly rooted in his portrayal of hyper masculinity, and even more specifically, wannabe gangster masculinity, there is no reason for him to even bother with things like debate rules. It also means there is no way to shake the confidence of is base other than to call his bluff. Our politics have genuinely deteriorated to the point where a plainly incapable, fascist president will only be recognized as deficient by his devotees if someone threatens with physical harm, causing him to acquiesce or eschewing the threat, and punches him in the face, causing him to acquiesce. This isn't hyperbole. As long as Trump is strutting around, puffing out his chest and blaming the people his base believes need to be blamed, it's the image of strength which needs to be pierced. Piercing it requires acquiescence, and Trump knows this. As long as he can claim persecution by the people they blame, and he can continue to present himself as having the strength to protect them, or stand as the shield who takes the slings and arrows, he has no reason to adhere to any norms or traditions, nor laws. Nothing else in a "debate" is going to change much of anything. This isn't advocating someone punch him in the face, it's just acknowledging what it is his acolytes are attached to, and how to break the attachment. 

Let's be clear, the last norm which will remain standing is the prohibition of violence against elites. When it's broken, the likelihood at this point will be members of the political and economic elite committing violence against each other. One of the most true things in American history is that violence is lateral by class or descending in relation to class, when it begins to ascend or appears as if might ascend, even when it is clearly in self defense, any and all actions are excusable. We've even become relatively numb to violence being levied in defense of the convenience of the upper classes, not even being limited to a defense of their physical safety. This is one of the markers of exactly how deeply engendered racism is as a systemic drive to create a permanent underclass, ascending class violence is more likely to be publicly excusable when the perpetrator is white and the victim is Black. 

All of this being true, as much as it would give many of us pleasure to see Donald Trump punched in the teeth, it's an extremely dangerous proposition. And as there is no significant number of votes to be won by continuing to participate in this spectacle, and even more likely, it will give Trump more of an opportunity to continue issuing implicit and explicit messages to a number of groups who have already demonstrated their capacity for political violence, the most responsible thing Joe Biden can do is refuse to keep participating in these debates.