Three hours before the first presidential \u201cdebate\u201d debacle kicked off, as I was blithely saut\u00e9ing a batch of mushrooms, my kitchen sink inexplicably plunged\u2014with a loud thunk\u2014to the bottom of the cabinet beneath it. Slightly more than a year earlier, the pricey stainless steel sink had been one of the final finishes to a long overdue, professional kitchen renovation. But, somehow, over the course of 12 months, it had worked its way loose from its moorings.<\/p>\n

Then I witnessed a much worse disaster: Donald Trump\u2019s off-the-rails performance at the presidential debate. He was unhinged, out of control, unmoored, unglued, unbolted. Just like my kitchen sink. But with vastly more dangerous consequences.<\/p>\n

Minutes after the sink sank, I put in a desperate call to the kitchen renovators. They were shocked. This doesn\u2019t happen, they said. We\u2019ll be out to fix it in the morning, they promised. And they were. When they arrived and assessed the situation, they blamed the problem on the original installers, who, they said, didn\u2019t seem to know what they were doing and did a half-assed job.<\/p>\n

Again, I was struck by the parallel with Donald Trump\u2019s presidency. Voters apparently didn\u2019t know what they were doing when they installed him. And he has demonstrated repeatedly that he doesn\u2019t know what he is doing as the \u201cleader of the free world.\u201d Also, he\u2019s not a half-ass, he\u2019s the full Monty. \u00a0(One aspect of this comparison that doesn\u2019t work is that, unlike the minority of the American electorate who voted for Trump, I didn\u2019t buy a product that was obviously damaged goods from the get-go.)<\/p>\n

The repair squad showed up as promised, their truck stocked with every tool, part, and adhesive product they needed to re-instate my sink to its proper condition. It took them a while to figure out what had happened (the sink had not been correctly braced). And they had to jerry-rig a solution (shoring up the sink with wooden supports). But they got the job done, and I feel\u00a0 confident that my sink is more stable than it was before.<\/p>\n

And despite the emotional hangover I was suffering post-debate, I saw another, convenient metaphorical connection. With Donald Trump as America\u2019s know-nothing, incompetent contractor-in-chief, the underpinnings of our democracy are coming undone, falling apart at the seams.<\/p>\n

Can Joe Biden do for American democracy what the repair guys did for my kitchen? I hope so. But he damage is already deep. Trump and his cohort of greedy, corrupt, and anti-democracy cronies have subverted our agencies, our institutions, our traditions and even our hopes and expectations. It\u2019s going to take a lot of work, and more than a metaphorical morning, to shore us back up and restore stability. Even if\u00a0 we manage to elect Biden, take back the Senate, and keep the House majority, we\u2019re going to need a truckload of good ideas and willing workers. We\u2019ll have to throw everything at the job\u2014including the kitchen sink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three hours before the first presidential \u201cdebate\u201d debacle kicked off, as I was blithely saut\u00e9ing a batch of mushrooms, my kitchen sink inexplicably plunged\u2014with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3027],"tags":[3581,2038,2526,2884],"yoast_head":"\n