On Thursday we will see the first presidential debate between Donald Trump, former president, and a man named Biden. The debate will be (ahem!) moderated by two notoriously anti-Trump characters from CNN–Jake Tapper, who has survived losing some 50% of his audience, and one Dana Bash.
Why does this wing-ding remind me of The Devil and Daniel Webster, by Stephen Vincent Benet?
In that story, the Devil comes to claim the soul of Jabez Stone; but Stone’s neighbor, Daniel Webster, undertakes to defend him. The Devil agrees to a trial, provided he gets to pick the jury. Webster has to allow it; and the Devil picks a dozen dyed-in-the-wool villains from American history. Today’s readers won’t recognize the names, but they were all still infamous a hundred years ago.
You’d think it’d be a kangaroo court, but Webster is equal to the challenge. He appeals to a common humanity that even these villains recognize; and lo and behold, a “Not Guilty” verdict. Jabez’s soul is saved.
Dare I suggest that even Jabez Stone got a better deal than President Trump is likely to get this week?
There’s something deeply but as yet indefinably fishy about this “debate.” Biden’s cognitive problems are widely recognized. I find it hard to understand why Mr. Trump agreed to participate. He must know he’s walking into a game with a stacked deck–like Alan Ladd in Shane. Only he won’t have Ladd’s screenwriters to help him through it.
And what can we do but pray for him? America needs Donald Trump back in the White House. This is Hercules flushing out the Augean stables: supposedly an impossible task, but he accomplished it regardless.
May the Lord our God defend us.
