Give up the keys, grandpa
my take on last night's debate
In 2016, a popular meme featured Trump holding a gun from a car. “Get in loser,” it said, “We’re making America great again.”
Reflecting on last night’s debate, it feels like it’s time to take the car keys away and retire Grandpa Trump to a life of pickle ball and bridge at the Mar-a-lago equivalent of an assisted-living facility.
I’ll go out on a limb and say this debate was a "turn the page in the context" moment. I think we’ll look back on it as a mile marker in our transition to a post-boomer, post-woke, post-MAGA America.
First, let’s acknowledge the obvious: Harris won. She came prepared. She made Trump look stale and old. She projected herself as the adult-in-the-room, a candidate of the future.
Did she get help from the moderators and make a few misleading claims? Sure. But that was expected. The fact is, she was better prepared than Trump and capitalized on her advantages. For example, I appreciated the way she used social proof in her persuasion, citing Wharton, Goldman Sachs, Republican economists, and even Trump’s own National Security Adviser and Secretary of Defense.
Harris wisely pre-bunked Trump’s worn-out narratives and lies. Immigration remains an important issue, but Trump’s tirade about Haitians was just stupid. “They’re eating the pets!” Trump ranted like a geriatric Qanon supporter, citing a fake story about immigrants in Ohio eating cats and dogs that he saw on TV.
Meanwhile, Harris didn’t get bogged down in identity politics or adopt the unlikable mannerisms that hurt Hillary Clinton. She wasn’t too cackling or “girlboss.” Though she appeared nervous at times, she was sharp and likable. She came across as the middle-class, East Bay kid who’s become a successful prosecutor and politician that she is. Her style felt more Gen X than boomer.
Trump kept boasting about how "nobody’s done more for America" or points along those lines. But he sounded stuck in the past, trying to relive 2016. Back then, he had a narrative that resonated, but in 2024 it feels tired and a lot less credible. Trump is not just fighting against Harris or Biden anymore; he’s up against the clock — and also the courts.
One of Harris’s strongest moments was when she leaned into her identity as a candidate from the next generation. She didn’t overdo it, but it was clear: she’s ready to turn a new page, not just on Trump but maybe on Biden too. You don’t have to love everything about Kamala Harris to recognize that she represents something new and different.
Like it or not, the U.S. is transitioning into a 21st century multiracial democracy, and Harris may be a compelling avatar for that shift. In contrast, Trump’s performative populism, boastful narcissism, and 78-year-old worldview seem increasingly out of place.
Many Trump supporters are claiming that Trump won the debate and that “Trump is back.” But that’s more wishful thinking than reality. The more discerning ones know Trump isn’t the same candidate he once was. They may have their own reasons for backing him, but deep down they know Harris won.
To sum it up, we’re at a turning point. Harris has flaws and is further to the left than I would prefer, but she is clearly the lesser of two evils. Meanwhile, Trump has become a poor representative of his own policy positions, many of which I favor over Harris’s.
This election is “take the keys away from grandpa” moment. The sooner we take the keys from Trump, the sooner the GOP can move into the future. On the other hand, if Trump wins, we will be holding our breath every time he opens his mouth. Every event could become a pile-up car crash on the freeway, with huge consequences for the country.
I am ready to seize the keys and turn the page. Are you?
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Frankly, if this is what it takes to get generational turnover in political leadership, then I'm not going to spend too much time griping about it. Perhaps this opens the door to a Vance, or even a Vivek, in the future purely based on age.
Even if Trump opened up necessary breathing room in the Overton Window, neither he nor his cronies (e.g., staffing choices) ever cultivated the discipline to follow through on anything. Probably because he is pretty starkly incapable of doing any sort of tedious administration that brings about results. Though, I'm certainly not underestimating the sheer histrionic resistance he faced upon walking in to the White House from Day 1.
Basically, at worst, Kamala threatens to be as bad as Obama was (who seemed really great at the time, but turned out to be an terrible leader – and who also faced a lot histrionic pushback from the Tea Party, etc.), but way better than Hillary (she terrifies me, thank the Lord she lost in 2016) would have been. She, unlike Queen Wall Street, would not consider blowing up random islands in Asia Pacific over Taiwan to signal geopolitical dominance.
That's still an awful situation to put the country in, which is why I've completely checked out of taking national elections – and mass democracy, more generally – seriously. I'm doing what I can to make sure the wicked hyenas of Washington and their corporate henchmen can't interfere with my life.
And the end of the day, "give up the keys, Grandpa" is a sentiment I will highly endorse even outside of federal government, irrespective of any debate performance.
I agree with this. Harris is certainly not my first choice, but between her and Trump, especially on a personal level, the choice is obvious.
But it still does sting somehow that she is, technically, a still a Boomer. Unquestionably better than the literal alternative but still; I spend a surprising amount of time thinking about the fact that Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump were all born in the same summer of 1946. And Clinton is the youngest, Trump the oldest!