Steady

Thoughts after the debate

I awoke this morning well before the sun came up. Part of it was jet lag and a desire to avoid adapting to local time on a quick family trip to Hawaii. We had also gone to bed early. 

But part of what awakened me and ultimately kept me up was the news. And the anxiety and despair in processing the aftermath of yesterday’s disastrous debate. I reached for my phone to see more of the headlines. Everyone seems to have a take. None of it starts in a good place. I got up to start writing.

As many of you know, my previous work on Substack was with Steady, the newsletter I founded with my longtime collaborator and friend Dan Rather. We named it after a favorite word he used in times of crisis. 

Steady. I reach for the word again now. 

I must confess that I didn’t watch all of the debate. I clambered out of the ocean after swimming with my daughters in time to open my phone, pop in my earbuds, and listen to the first several questions. 

Worried text chains with friends and family began immediately. They got more desperate. It reflected what I was seeing on screen. I knew the news would be about Biden’s performance and not the substance (or lack thereof on Trump’s part) of what was being said. I looked back to my daughters’ heads bobbing in the distance, and up at the afternoon sun descending to the west. I decided I needed to be back in the water with the people I loved most. I wanted to hug them and feel their youthful optimism. I wanted to have space to think. 

I put down my phone. 

I thought about their future—and all of ours. I thought about the expanse of the Pacific and how insignificant we are against the backdrops of space and time. I thought about the Polynesians, ancestors to my wife and daughters, who crossed oceans to inhabit these islands. I wondered what their worlds might have been like and how complex our species’ experiences have been. I even found myself considering the geologic time that allows volcanoes to soar above the surf and create new land in the middle of a churning sea. 

I sought perspective, somehow steadied by the knowledge that life on our planet is ever-changing. 

As fate would have it, I was in Hawaii nine years ago at the time of another debate. It was early in the cycle of the Republican nominating process, and there on stage was a con artist grifter who had never held elected office. I remember how his candidacy was treated as a joke at the time, including by me.

We were in Hawaii with dear family friends from New York on our last trip together before my family and I moved to San Francisco. I remember thinking, at the time, about all the uncertainty that lay ahead—new surroundings, new schools, new friends, new realities. 

Little did I know that the mean-spirited, unserious, egotistical man on stage, whom I loathed for his ubiquity in the New York media, would be one of the most significant forces for damaging chaos in the history of this country. 

Now, here we are. 

I understand the calls for Biden to step down. And I understand the counternarrative that he should stay as the Democratic nominee. 

I start with the belief that he has been a very good president, arguably the best of my lifetime in terms of what he has been able to accomplish. In other words, he has excelled at the job of being president. By all accounts, he is still able to perform those duties without concern. 

I understand those who say judging him on one bad performance is unfair. He was sick. We all have our moments. I agree that it is late in the process, and even when people say they want someone else, they disagree on who that should be—never mind the means by which we should get there. 

And yet, what matters most is that Trump is defeated, and Biden did not look good at a pivotal moment when he should have shined. Because Trump was awful yesterday in the ways that are critically important. He is a would-be authoritarian who lied with almost every word he spoke. 

A majority of Americans do not want Trump to be president again, but I am not sure if that is enough to elect Biden to another term. 

The truth is that this is not just about today or November. It’s about the next four years. We have all seen people age and know the trajectory. We have witnessed Biden age. This is not theoretical. It is not unfair to try to imagine what Biden will be like in 2026 or 2028. 

Yesterday cannot be ignored. And it should not be explained away. 

In all honesty, I don’t know what the best path forward is. I tend to think someone else should be the nominee. And I think, for a lot of reasons, it should be Kamala Harris. I understand why people have their own favorites, like Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, and others. There are a lot of great potential candidates. I don’t know how this should unfold. And if it is still Biden, we will all need to do everything to make sure he is elected. I think he could still win. 

I hope Democratic Party leaders and all the best thinkers around the president and other would-be candidates are taking this moment seriously and having the hard conversations necessary to devise the best path forward. 

I understand the instinct to panic, but I come back to “steady.” Steadiness does not mean inaction. It doesn’t mean ignoring reality. It doesn’t mean avoiding bold decisions. It means being driven by reason and not by heated emotion. It means thinking things through. We need this approach now more than ever. 

The sun has risen, and it is a new day. The news out of the Supreme Court denotes more outrage and chaos. Now is the time for leadership. Now is the time to rally for the good of the nation. Now is the time to fight for what we believe in. 

With steadiness, let’s go forward. I truly believe the majority of Americans want our democracy and our progress to continue. 

We have seen that most Republicans are united by a fealty to Trump and his MAGA cult. Democrats are united in a desperate desire to save freedom and democracy. I believe the latter is a more hopeful and powerful motivator. There has to be a way to channel this energy towards victory in November.