The Morning After

"Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss"

-The Who

For the first time since 2016, curiosity got the best of me, and we watched a presidential debate.

The event began wobbly enough for Harris, and it seemed that DJT had consumed enough Adderall to get through the ninety minutes without making an ass of himself.

Then, maybe twelve minutes in, Harris made a comment about how boring and unhinged Trump's campaign rallies had become, and noted that his supporters often ended up just leaving. Lacking any sort of self-control, Trump took the bait. Over the next 78 minutes he harangued about immigrants eating cats, couldn't make himself say we should be rooting for Ukraine in its effort to fight off an invasion by Trump's favorite dictator, referenced another dictator, Victor Orban, as a character reference. I could go on. It was just nuts. And Harris played him like a fiddle, treating him like the crazy uncle at the Thanksgiving dinner table mansplaining how the Covid vaccine contains a computer chip that allows Bill Gates to monitor your thoughts.

So, two wakeups from the rather one-sided spectacle, I opened the paper online to see how the polls have moved in light of Trump's disastrous meltdown. After all, Biden had a couple pauses during his debate and was forced out of the race. Surely this performance would shift public opinion dramatically. Right?

Well, not exactly. As of this morning, the race remains a tie, with Trump actually having more combinations that could lead to his election.

https://www.270towin.com/maps/consensus-2024-presidential-election-forecast

How can this be? We live in a country where half the population is okay with dictatorship, with sending a malevolent clown prince to the White House where he and his sorry offspring can resume their grift while the country slides into becoming a banana republic. The world would be laughing at us if we weren't so heavily armed and dangerous.

Which is why P and I have pretty much stopped spending money on anything that can't be easily liquidated. There is simply no way I can live among people who hold the beliefs that make the MAGA nightmare what it is. And one sees as many MAGA flags in Bath and Painted Post as in Blountstown and Parker. There's no geographic solution within the U.S., and the fact is he's already told us he plans to use law enforcement to wreck the lives of anyone who opposes him. Hell, even as I write this, our wee-dictator-wannabe in Tallahassee has his election police confronting citizens in their homes about their signatures on the petition placing Florida's abortion initiative on the ballot.

https://apnews.com/article/florida-abortion-ballot-amendment-elections-police-00cec3034e4d82cb202c8578677a3681

We chastise folks for using the word "fascist" to describe the Republican Party in 2024, but if the shoe fits . . .

So, France. We're already shopping real estate, I can work remotely, Peg will slide into a happy retirement, and Dean and Slane will just have to learn how to be les chats. When I get tired of the French, we'll fly north an hour and spend a few weeks among my cousins in Ireland. Both places have their own nativist crazies, but it's easier to tolerate those sorts of failings when it's not folks you've known most of your adult life, your tribe.

If Tuesday's debate didn't move the needle, there's no hope for this country. If we send the Cheeto Messiah back to the White House, P and I will enjoy the spectacle from across the Atlantic.