Dakota Beacon

Following last night’s bland debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, various talking heads weighed in.  On the right - Sean Hannity, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Steve Deace, Glenn Beck, Dave Rubin and others held a strong belief that Pence had crushed Harris in the debate.  They noted his calm, controlled, polite demeanor as contrasted with that of Harris, who, they said, “had nothing” but was condescending and rude.  I’d say they were about half right.  On the left the pundits proclaimed Harris the big winner of the night, that Pence continually “mansplained” to her.  Oh, and a satanic fly lit on Pence’s head during the debate - a sure sign of the Wrath of God.  We have all heard the legend of the blind men and the elephant.  When asked what the elephant resembled, each had a different idea - the guy who felt the elephant’s leg thought it must be like a tree, the one who felt it’s trunk thought it was like a snake, etc.  We might be too close to the event to have perspective enough to evaluate it, but first impressions are important.  So, at the risk of a short perspective, here goes.

My own impression was of an unctuously polite Pence, trying to observe niceties on his own clock time rather than slam his opponent.  One kept wondering if this was Ferdinand the Bull, too busy sniffing the daisies to fight.  It took him several questions to warm up and seem to acknowledge that he was in a real live debate.  Meanwhile, Harris kept piling on the lies.  She brought them all out - that Trump refused to condemn the KKK and white supremacists in the last debate (not true, of course), she prevaricated wildly about the Green New Deal, about fracking.  If one were old enough it would remind him of the 1928 song, “Undecided”.  We all know that Biden and Harris have both independently promised to end fracking and fossil fuels and they have both embraced the Green New Deal along with its multi-trillion-dollar price tag and the inevitable loss of production due to lack of power.  Her own state of California, which has been following her ideas has been in rolling brown-outs all summer.  She swatted at Pence over China.  What side of the fence is she on again?  

In a debate, everyone misstates or overstates some facts.  Numbers can be confusing when people are engaged in a debate.  But some facts really should not be confused by anyone.  When these facts are misrepresented it amounts to a lie.  When that lie is obvious and contradicts what we see with our own eyes, the word is “gaslighting”.  Here are a few:

1. Harris claimed that Trump refused to condemn “white supremacy”.  In fact, Trump very emphatically has repeatedly rejected white supremacists and white supremacist organizations, even as recently as the debate on September 29.  It was quite clear and there have been no statements to the contrary from him.  Harris, Biden, et al are relying on Trump’s unfamiliarity with Proud Boys, which is not a “white supremacist” group and in fact has participation from people of all races.  She expressed self-pride in her participation in “peaceful protests” following the George Floyd incident.  Trump never condoned the behavior of the police in that instance.  

2. Harris claimed that Biden (and presumably his immediate heir, Harris) did not call for an end to fracking.  Not true.  Biden has been contradicting himself on this, but he has stated he will end fossil fuels.  He has said during the primary he would end fracking.  Did he mean it?  Harris wants us to believe he didn’t.  We do know that Harris herself is committed to ending fracking everywhere.  

3. She claimed that Trump’s tariffs for China cost America “300,000 jobs”.  In fact, we gained jobs - we didn’t lose jobs.  We gained 146,000 jobs, according to Fact-check.org., following the imposition of these tariffs.  

4. She said Trump called the virus a “hoax”.  He referred to the Democrat’s use of the virus to politicize it a “hoax” - he never called the virus itself a hoax.  

5. She attacked the Trump tax cuts, saying they only benefited the wealthy - the “top 1%”.  But in fact, 85% of middle income households received more than $1,000 in tax cuts under his plan.  

6. Harris brought up the now thoroughly-debunked Trump-Russia “collusion” claim.  In fact, right now it appears that people involved in this investigation are themselves in the sling.

7. Kamala’s little “history lesson” on Honest Abe, everyone’s hero, was false.  Lincoln had an opening on the Supreme Court when Congress was not in session, so he had to wait.  He did fill the seat at the first opportunity.  The Lincoln story is irrelevant in any case.  We see a crisis looming with the Democrats’ criminally reckless effort to derail the normal election process with the so-called “mail-in” balloting which is already threatening the nation’s election - we cannot afford a split, short-handed Supreme Court.  Trump’s duty is to nominate a candidate and fill the seat.  He is in office for several more months and he would be remiss in neglecting this for any reason.

In short, Kamala Harris spent an hour-and--a- half lying about Trump’s record and everything else in sight..  But Pence seemed to be on defense the whole time.  Why?  Why didn’t he come out fighting?  He came out dropping his hankie instead.

What I wish had happened:

1. I wish Pence had attacked Harris for the Obama-Biden Iran nuclear deal. Ending that fiasco will undoubtedly save thousands of lives.  Iran is a major exporter of terrorism - anything which would serve to weaken this rogue government is a good thing and Trump deseres support from all Americans for his policy on Iran.

2. I wish he had come on strong against their stand on China and the CCP.   This is a brutal government which abuses not only its own people but is showing aggression toward every nation on the planet - they have infiltrated our colleges and universities - even our grade schools with the Confucius  Institutes, they have entrapped other nations in debt traps through their “Belt and Road” programs, they are threatening their neighboring nations in the Pacific and Asia militarily.  They are stealing intellectual property wherever they find it.  They are harming not only our economy but all nations' economies.  China’s sloppy research methods, which are unhampered by any kind of responsible regulation, have caused a world-wide pandemic of a deadly disease.  The CCP is a toxic entity.  We should be calling for its dismantling in the interest of the whole world, not trying to make deals with them.  China is the enemy of America and most of the world. Most of the world's nations are now recognizing this - America is not by any means alone in condemnation of the CCP government.   And by the way, the CCP has endorsed Biden.  Usually when your enemy endorses a candidate, that candidate won’t help you.  

3. On foreign policy, Pence stood there and allowed Harris to denigrate Trump’s foreign policy.  Even during three-plus years of harassment with the failed impeachment effort by the Democrats, even with an epidemic of massive proportions visited upon us through either carelessness or design by China, Trump has somehow managed to achieve a great degree of peaceful accord - formally - in the Middle East, with more nations entering agreements with Israel all the time, isolating rogue states such as Iran.  He has been nominated three times for a Nobel Peace Prize by independent people.  He has forged an important alliance among nations bordering China, something akin to NATO, for protection against that nation’s aggression.  That alliance seems destined to grow and be a force for peace in the region.  Foreign policy should have been in the Trump column.  None of these achievements was even alluded to by Pence.  (It is at least of passing interest that Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff’s law firm has been involved in representing Afghanistan and Bahrain - and Burisma tells us all we need to know about the potential for corruption in the Vice Presidency.)

4. Although he did mention the Biden-Harris position to end fracking, Pence could have been prepared with some specifics - they have people to find these quotes. He should have used them.  This is a major issue in swing states.  It should be in every state - our future depends on a solid energy system.

5. We all watched as America’s cities burned down all summer long.  Portland has been under attack now for more than four months.  Why didn’t Pence condemn her participation in these phony “protests”?  He mentioned one lady in the audience who lost a salon.  Could he have found better numbers maybe?  I mean, this has been virtually our life and death all summer long.  We have evidence of foreign involvement in these riots.  Trump managed to get Antifa listed as a terrorist organization.  BLM is literally indistinguishable from them.  These protests led directly to the riots.  Pence should have found a way to condemn Harris for participating in this.  She has said, “they (riots) will and should continue”.  This is contemptible.  He should have called her out on this one.  For those affected by it not much else is left to care about.  He might have mentioned that law enforcement organizations have, for the first time, endorsed a Republican because of the irresponsible, reckless policies of Democrat mayors and to some extent, governors.

6. Why didn’t he assert that the Trump administration managed to get rid of the individual mandate portion of the ACA?  People were deceived by the Affordable Care Act and voted Obama in.  When they were hit with the individual mandate many lost all of their insurance.  It was a disaster.  Trump’s watch got rid of it.  This was cause for celebration for many.  I know of people who would have ended up homeless if this had not been thrown out.  

7. Pence could have countered these “racist” charges with some facts which pointed to the impressive gains in employment among minorities.

8. On “transparency” I wish Pence had slammed Biden for not coming clean about his mental function.  There would have been some way to do this.  Trump has been more than open about his recent health issue.  He’s been on display almost the whole time and updates have been issued.  (True, Dr. Conley sidestepped the oxygen question, but that was not Trump, and in fact, we can see that Trump doesn’t need anything any longer.)  But Biden should really undergo some kind of independent (blind, perhaps) evaluation and reveal his problems.  He obviously is having problems.  He’s in no condition to run a nation.  Kamala Harris is presumed - and presumes herself - that this will be (and I quote)  a “Harris-Biden administration”.  That might have been alluded to.  

9. Employment - this, too, should have been in the Trump column.  The loss of jobs since last spring have more to do with Democrat governors shutting down businesses as well as Napoleonic mayors such as De Blasio.  

10. I also wish he had thrown doubt on the COVID numbers that are so casually thrown around to paint a picture of a third-world kind of response by Trump to the pandemic.  Our numbers have been so mullixed up with phony death rates attributed to the disease (not reflecting real causes of death at all).the unreliability of testing, the terminology which calls every positive result a “case”, etc.  In addition to this we have no true numbers from some nations - in some there has been little testing, everyone uses different definitions and then there are nations which obfuscate or totally lie about their numbers.  This was allowed to go unchallenged.  Pence stated that the Biden-Harris plank on COVID was so similar to Trump’s as to be “plagiarism” (he got in the cute reference to Biden’s infamous incident of plagiarism in college).  Why, on earth, would he do that?  The Biden plan, as stated by him, would be to shut everything down according to whatever “the doctors” advise!  The doctors, of course, have no expertise in the economy, in jobs, in business success or failure.  And shutdowns do nothing to help stop the virus.  Sweden is proof of that, at least.  Harris mentioned “contact tracing”.  This is code for the kind of social credit system that is practiced in mainland communist China.  There is no other way to “contact trace”.  The normal methods of questioning and informing are already on-going.  Obviously.  The only way to “improve” on this would be to employ the kind of draconian methods used by totalitarian governments to track everyone.  I hope the Trump team doesn’t have this in mind.  It is certain that Trump differs from Biden in the idea of shutting down the economy again.  Why would Pence jump to this weird position?  Just to get off the “plagiarism” line?  It sure wasn’t worth it.

We could go on.  The fact is that we have some very clear demarcation lines.  Republicans oppose the rioting that has been destroying our cities and our economy.  Rioting has been facilitated and encouraged by Democrat mayors and Democrat-dominated city councils and enabled by complicit Democrat governors who refuse to call in needed help to stop it.  Rioting is, in effect, condoned by Democrats - Democrats including Biden and Harris have encouraged it, participated in the protests which enabled it and refuse to disavow the groups inciting it. 

Republicans favor responsible energy production, fracking.  Democrats want to shut it down.  They favor a “Green New Deal” which would be impossible to pay for and meaningless in terms of climate.  

Republicans understand the correlation between Wall Street and Main Street.  If the hourly employee hopes one day to use his 401K he will need a strong financial market.  Reagan proved that a strong financial structure does not harm but benefits the guy at the lower end of the scale.  Democrats, on the other hand, want contention between the so-called "haves" and "have-nots" - class warfare, a la Soviet Russia or CCP China.  This has no place in America.  We should all be enouraged to aspire to do well economically, not punished if we succeed.

Republicans, at least conservatives, recognize that China is a fierce enemy of democracy and human rights in general and America in particular.  They understand the need to contain the CCP and discourage its expansionist ideas.  Democrats want to return to the pre-Trump trade and diplomatic arrangements which allowed China to take advantage of us and endanger not only our economy but also our national security.  There is evidence that the CCP has been directly involved in the planning and execution of the rioting this summer and we at the very least know that using slave labor in China has resulted in lost jobs for normal workers in America.  Why should we want more of that?  There are some very stark contrasts.  We might wish that Pence could have outlined them in bold strokes.  He was dainty instead.    

He should have called Harris out when she lied.  He seldom did.  Wednesday night Dave Rubin, in conversation with Glenn Beck, referred to a “reality war”.  What people believed, he observed, was conditioned on where they were getting their news.  If they were relying upon mainstream media for most of it - CNN, ABC, et al, their view of reality was distorted.  Facts were not reality to them.  This is the gaslighting I’m talking about - and unfortunately a debate does not allow for a calm and polite effort but rather an all-out attack.  If he had even scored a few of these points it would have been helpful.

Let Glenn Beck and Hannity and Shapiro and Michael Knowles bask in some kind of joy in believing that Pence “won” this.  He might have come off looking better or nicer than Harris, but for my money, he pulled too many punches to have come out the big winner.  In fairness, a friend suggested I wait a week and watch the debate again.  Maybe I'll change my mind on some of this, but this is how it impressed me at once, and most people will see this once if at all, not twice.  I have a feeling I am in the minority here, but I was disappointed.

Trump has said he will not participate in a virtual debate.  There is no reason why we should have a virtual debate.  By the 17th of October he will have long since been past the quarantine stage himself.  The participants can be placed out of range of one another and other precautions can be taken to protect everyone.  This is what is meant by not living in fear.  We need to stop this.  A virtual debate is not a debate.  The entire character of a debate is one person debating on his own, bringing his own views and information into play.  A virtual debate would open the door to massive manipulation.  There would be no way to arrange adequate oversight.  Republican candidates already have to debate a tag team of the opponent plus the “moderator” - the last presidential debate proved that point.  (And in my own opinion, the praise offered to Susan Page for her moderating in the Vice Presidential debate was undeserved.)  But that is another whole issue for another day.  Let’s hope that Trump will debate Biden again - for real.

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