Why I won't be watching the presidential debates

I don't plan on watching the first presidential debate tonight, or any of the others for that matter. I have high blood pressure, and watching Donald Trump in full flight is only going to make it worse. I tried watching daily Trump's pandemic addresses many times back in those distant, early days of April and May, when he thought that he could squeeze some political capital out of such appearances, but I usually had to move away at some point. The guy just makes me really angry.

I don't expect Joe Biden to do particularly well in the one-on-one debates. The best I am hoping for is that he holds his own and does not make any howling mistakes. This is Trump's territory. He will talk more, he will talk louder, he will goad and slash, he will make endless unsubstantiated claims, he will lie through his teeth and do it in such a way that many people will believe him. And, in the absence of any fact-checking, he will no doubt score lots of points, and may well sway some undecideds (although this apparently only makes up a surprisingly small 3-5% of those expected to vote).

But I don't feel that it would be edifying to watch this kind of bear-baiting contest. Why do we even need a debate? Surely, by now, pretty much everyone knows what Trump stands for. And Biden is, well, not Trump. Add to that the fact that this debate is hosted by Trump's pet news channel, Fox News, which will lob him some easy partisan topics, and I think my time will be better spent reading a book or surfing Netflix. Anything really.

UPDATE

I'm feeling extremely vindicated right now. My wife tried to watch it and gave up after about half an hour. I'm sure I wouldn't have lasted that long.

The debate has been almost universally panned, even by conservative media outlets. Trump was completely out of control, no policies got discussed, the moderator was ineffectual, and the American public got shafted. Again. It was, by most reports, The. Worst. Debate. Ever.

It's tempting to think that such a shitshow can only have damaged Trump's chances. But his supporters don't tend to operate in a logical manner, and even that is not assured. All we can be thankful for is that Joe Biden survived and did not have a heart attack, although there is serious debate around whether it is in his, or anyone's, interest to go through two more of these things.