As I reflect on the recent Presidential debate and all the news surrounding it I find myself confused by peoples’ confusion and surprised by their sense of surprise. 

I want to acknowledge that there can be a psychological safety in being a jaded know-it-all. That said, when it comes to Biden & Trump, who didn’t already know all they needed to know? 

Are people genuinely surprised that Biden stumbled around the truth and told fanciful stories like a wistful grandfather on his sixth Gin Fizz? The man has spent his entire life as a fabulist with a tenuous grip on the truth: what’s new in these behaviors? 

The same goes for Trump: are people still shocked by the tarnished turds that tumble from his teeth? Why? How?

These two men have spent the majority of their lives in the public eye and are collectively more than 160-years old: what new data points or information is being gleaned? What could either of these men do that could surprise anyone?

I can’t believe anyone who couldn’t believe what they saw onstage the other night, and the only headline that ought to have been printed should have read, Old men say and do exactly what you thought they would. 

At this point we might as well be surprised to find out that P is an actual letter of the alphabet. 

My hunch here is that people are shocked by the reality that one of these two goobers will be our next President, as well as the wake up call that the one of them already is. This seems like a reasonable thing to be shocked about, and it brings us to a point I’ve written about over and over and over (…) again on this site: it doesn’t have to be like this. 

Unlike my inability to dunk a basketball, there is no physical or biological law dictating that one of these two ciphers must be our leader. This slice of reality is constructed by us and us alone. We don’t have to settle for this. 

And we have no one to blame for settling for it other than ourselves.

So if you didn’t like what you saw onstage the other night — and honestly, who in their right mind could’ve liked anything on display — change it.