A while back I wrote a blog titled: The Muhammad Ali Syndrome. In that essay, I pointed out that Muhammad Ali made the mistake, like many athletes and other professionals, of not knowing when was the best time for him to exit his boxing career. Many commentators thought it was best for him to quit boxing after his upset win in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) over George Foreman in the 8th round. But he persisted to fight way beyond what his body could endure resulting in permanent debilitating brain damage.
Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, recently wrote an article in the New York Times called: The Reason It’s So Hard for Powerful People to Walk Away. Grant maintains that rather than walk away from a losing proposition people often double down on their decisions because it feels better to be a fighter than a quitter. He has labeled this phenomenon “escalation of commitment to a losing course of action.” Subsequent to President Biden’s poor performance in his debate with Donald Trump last week, Biden has appeared to fall into this very same trap insofar as he has refused to throw in the towel by terminating his presidential campaign for the Democratic party. His perseverance has held steady despite several of his past supporters stating that they would like him to withdraw his candidacy from the coming election in November.
Currently, no one knows exactly what President Biden will decide to do in the future. But as Adam Grant mentioned, if Biden listens to the people closest to him such as family and top aides, he is receiving advice that is hardly objective but rather tinted with those susceptible to confirmation bias. Regardless, I would recommend that whoever debates Mr. Trump in the future, be it Mr. Biden or another candidate, that that person focuses on Trump’s pattern of lying. In the debate for presidency between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter on October 28th, 1980, in responding to Carter’s attack on Reagan vis-à-vis his position on Medicare, the latter said: There you go again.” That comment received much laughter from the audience then allowing Reagan to explain where Carter was misconstruing what, in fact, he really believed about Medicare. So then, why not have whoever does debate Trump, assuming there will be a debate, focus on Trump’s lies by mentioning something like the following: “Mr. Trump every time you make a false statement, I’m going to respond to it by using that famous line of the great communicator, Ronald Reagan, and say: There you go again.” This may appeal to the Americans who remember and loved Reagan, many of whom, of course were Republicans. The motive here for Biden, of course, would be for him to expand his base with the potential pool of voters that are undecided as to how they will vote.
The format of the first debate was such that the commentators that presented each candidate with the questions were not going to fact check each of their statements. That chore was to be left to the two participants in the debate. Unfortunately, President Biden failed to call Mr. Trump on many of the falsehoods he made during the debate. One very blatant lie Trump made was when he asserted that some Democratic states are allowing abortions after the 8th month of a woman’s pregnancy right up to the birth of the child. When I heard this, I was surprised that Biden did not react to this obvious “Trumped” up statement. Ironically, one of the few comments Trump made that had a ring of truth to it was when Biden was having difficulty expressing himself, Trump said: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of his sentence and, I don’t think he did either.” I’m quite sure Trump’s followers appreciated that rejoinder.
In a Wall Street Journal article, Peggy Noonan declared Trump’s behavior as characterological whereas she believed Biden’s evident lack of coherence was neurological. What a shame that our country is being represented by two leaders, one an individual with sociopathic tendencies, and the other one showing clear signs of aging. These two are being backed by their parties with the belief that they are the best of all candidates to defeat their rival from the other party. I hope this political game does not result in deleterious consequences to us, the citizens of America.
Dr. Bernard F. Natelson 