I get that people who love democracy and detest MAGA fascism are alarmed about President Joe Biden. I share the concerns.

What’s astounding – and it speaks to how numb we’ve become – is that virtually no one with a public megaphone, in the wake of last week’s debate, is calling for Donald Trump to get the hell out and leave us in peace.

Yes, Biden ratcheted up the age issue anew with his oft-enfeebled performance. Perhaps the Democrats would be better off if he withdrew and cleared the decks for a more vigorous candidate (assuming that can be done without intramural chaos). The New York Times editorial board and most of the paper’s pundits want him gone. But before we deep-six this good man and his effective presidential tenure, we need to get our priorities straight.

The pathologically lying convicted criminal, who has been held liable for sexual assault and financial fraud, who’s still criminally charged with fomenting a coup and trying to overthrow the peaceful transition of power, who’s still criminally charged with stealing secret classified documents and stashing them in his bathroom, who’s still criminally charged with trying to overthrow his 2020 loss in Georgia (“I just want to find, uh, 11,780 votes”), is the one who really needs to go, pronto.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, my ex-employer, posted an editorial calling for Trump to withdraw. Kudos to the paper for putting things in the proper perspective. Why aren’t there more voices urging the same? All anyone needs to do is reference the garbage he disgorged during the debate – much of which has been overshadowed by the focus on Biden.

No candidate for president should disparage the rule of law and our judicial system. Trump attacked the integrity of the judge and prosecutors in the Stormy Daniels-election interference trial, ignoring for the umpteenth time that he was indicted by a grand jury of ordinary citizens and later convicted by a jury of his peers.

No candidate for president should threaten to pull out of NATO, the western alliance that has provided collective global security since 1949. When Biden asked Trump whether he would make good on his previous threats to yank America out of NATO, the felon shrugged and refused to answer.

No candidate for president should play fast and loose with the public’s health. On the stump, Trump is threatening to withhold federal funds from schools that mandate vaccines. During the debate, he took no responsibility for his imbecilic response to the Covid pandemic and failed to mention that The Lancet, a prominent medical journal, concluded in a 2021 report that Trump’s “appalling response” to the pandemic “expedited the spread of Covid” in the United States. According to the report, as many as 40 percent of the 470,00 deaths that occurred on his watch could have been avoided, had he acted rationally.

And, worst of all, no candidate for president should dodge this simple question: Will you accept the democratic election results if you lose? He refused to accept his 2020 loss, and he’s already signaling that he’d refuse again in 2024. He is a traitor to all that we stand for.

Late in the debate, Trump was asked three times whether he’d abide by the results. Three times he categorically refused to say yes. He even shrugged off the violent insurrection he fomented on Jan. 6: “A relatively small number of people went to the Capitol and in many cases were ushered in by the police,” thereby lying (yet again) about what we all saw with our own eyes.

When pressed for the third time to answer the election question, here’s what he said: “If it’s a fair and legal and good election – absolutely. I would have much rather accepted these but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous that if you want, we’ll have a news conference on it in a week or we’ll have another one of these on – in a week.”

Translating the incoherence: He’ll “absolutely” accept the 2024 election results – if he wins; if he loses, he’ll say it wasn’t a fair and legal and good election. Just like he did in 2020 when “the fraud and everything else was ridiculous” (the courts, including Trump-appointed judges, found no fraud).

Conclusion: If he loses, he’ll tee us up for another round of fascist-style chaos, arguably worse than Jan. 6’s rehearsal. No candidate for president should ever do that. It is traitorous.

And that alone is why – outside the MAGA Republican cult – a public call for Trump to step down should be unanimous. The fact that we seem solely fixated on Biden’s acuity is a sad commentary on how much the tyrant’s lies, rants, and criminality have been normalized. Have we lost all sense of perspective?

Copyright 2024 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected]