Me either!
I’ve been reading some usually-reliable people talking about how the debate is a farce, a tragedy, a set-up, shouldn’t happen, etc.
I’ve watched or heard most all the presidential debates since (including) Nixon v Kennedy. Honestly, few have been worth seeing or hearing. This time, though, is different.
Never before have the differences between the candidates, the parties, the red/blue aspects of the eligible voters been so stark - or so vast. Never before has a national party presented a raft of frankly anti-American & unconstitutional plans & policies.
NEVER has a demagogue roped in enough of the heedless & gullible to threaten the actual fabric of our government and society.
This has been building up for decades, getting more intense & urgent w/ every turn of the screw. After 28 years of hiding, GOP greeted Obama like Gandalf greeting the balrog in Moria. They went all in on McConnell vow to make Obama a one-term President; as things went less well for them than they wanted, their urgency began to catch up w/ their commitment, and they began to over-reach more & more - eventually tipping their hand w/ TFFG, #45 & the “Will be wild!” crowd
As a result, the stakes have never been higher: BOTH sides will see an accomplished president square off against a corrupt & criminal president…and some viewers, hopefully, will see or hear something that shakes their confidence in their choice, while others mayonly see/hear what confirms their faith.
I’m expecting Trump have a problem with the lack of peanut gallery: he rules people up, then feeds on their excitement like a ghoul; without that, I expect him to get very nasty very quickly
But there’s another level to this: sacred kingship. “The King and the Land are ONE!” went the cry long ago, when a good king meant a good (or at least better) life for the people - and a bad life meant a bad king. Many kings got replaced in many regions as a consequence, and it did as much good as harm over the centuries. But it is WHY we revere royalty, even here in the supposedly class-free, everyone is equal USA, and rich people of all sorts. Easier for me to be okay with Taylor Swift’s success than Marvin Schrecklich the ‘pharma-bro’ pissbucket, or Colin Kaepernick over Aaron Rogers, but that me.