I have had more political discourse with people I love in the last 24 hours than I can remember, maybe, since we elected Barack Obama. People in my family and personal life that I have a lot of respect for, love, and care about deeply. Thursday night was the Nixon/Kennedy debate reincarnate. Our empathizer in chief Joe Biden, who I have the utmost respect for his life of service to this country, he is a big fucking deal. He also, is done, I don’t see how he recovers from this, but if he doesn’t decide to bow out we still have to vote for him.

Before the debate started, I had a very negative view of CNN as a news outlet. I like Anderson Cooper, especially when he gets drunk on air at the new year, but this was journalistic malpractice. Much like in 2016 when CNN aired full Trump rallies live, giving platform to the racist, xenophobic, self-centered rantings of a conman, in the debate their failure to stop him when he didn’t answer questions or fact check any of the sewage he spewed on their airwaves makes it clear to me that I will never trust them for anything ever again.

It will be interesting to see what comes of the first polls after the debate is baked in, but I am predicting catastrophe. Biden probably edges out Trump if the election is held this past Wednesday, but we are in a different place now. A two point slip in national polls would be a death sentence, and I think it will be worse than that. My thought of him winning rests upon victory in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where I have to assume progress was lost Thursday night.

The corporate owned Democratic Party could decide to take action and make a change at the convention, but my pessimism makes me believe that they won’t. I think that Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, and Josh Shapiro would all make much better candidates and all are capable of beating Trump in November. However with this Democratic Party, sadly, the song remains the same, vote in step against the orange man, and we are likely stuck with Biden in November.

Believers in sanity, the rule of law, free and fair elections, and the American experiment are at a crossroads right now. Joe Biden is not the answer, but the question is still, ‘How can we prevent Donald Trump from turning this country into a dictatorship?’ Unfortunately, right now Joe is still the last man in the trench, holding the line, and will I still vote for him? Absolutely. We can do so much better than this, however, and options should be considered like the world depends on it, because it does.