Donald Trump has duped the old codger, President Joe Biden, and it just could put the narcissistic, sociopathic, wannabe dictator back in the White House.

Trump also is duping millions of Republicans who fantasize about a “strong man” who will get things done.  Things that they want.

Strong men, or women, destroy democracies. They manipulate ignorant, naïve and gullible voters by promising law and order while legitimizing the breaking of domestic and international laws and norms, using propaganda, cronyism and police crackdowns, and taking advantage of public vulnerability to misinformation.

Narcissists project a facade of strength and confidence to cover up deep-seated insecurities. They believe themselves to be smarter than other people and, right or wrong, they must always be in control.  Trump is a textbook example of full-blown narcissism.

Trump has finagled Biden into agreeing to two presidential “debates,” which constitute a popular political and news fraud upon voters.

These so-called debates constitute dishonest, deceitful, disgusting, unprincipled, political dog-and-pony shows.

In 1960, I watched the first live TV broadcast of a presidential “debate.” It featured John F. Kennedy and then Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

Analysts generally agree that Nixon won the debate on substance, but lost the election because he refused to wear makeup, which revealed his dark five-o’clock shadow and pale appearance.

There were three more debates, with declining audiences, and Nixon never overcame the unfavorable image he presented in the first one.

Presidential elections should be intellectual, focusing on problems, policies and the candidates’ qualifications for office.

But that’s not what these “debates” are about.

They are about viewership, which sells expensive advertising. They are about conflict. Not the conflict of ideas, but personal conflict.

Fake “debates” trivialize the most important election in the free world.

The League of Women Voters sponsored some of the “debates" until 1987 when it wisely pulled out of sponsorship, by a unanimous vote of its board of trustees.

In a news release back then, the League said demands from both campaign organizations “would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter ... charades devoid of substance,” and refused to become “an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."

Unfortunately, the television industry is quite happy to be an accessory to hoodwinking with the broadcasting of frauds and charades devoid of substance.

Having turned the “debates” into a political farce, both Democrat and Republican parties produce charades; dramatic performances without substance.

Moderators stumble over themselves trying to give the impression that they are in charge, but utterly fail to hold candidates to the rules that they, the politicians, have agreed to follow.

Candidates trample over moderators and each other, and analysts and commentators pontificate about meaningless aspects of fraud instead of dealing with crucial matters.

In real debates, all candidates have equal time, and all are required to answer the same questions. Talk about a stacked deck!

In real debates, participants respect other participants' time and don’t talk over them. And they stay on topic.

And, not only playing the game but actively promoting it, television stations put up not only the video of the person having the mic, but on other candidates grimacing, or whatever.

This distracts from the speaker.

And, of course, stations relish the encouragement of candidates jumping on the speaker.

Were it not so, only the speaker’s mic would be live during his or her allotted time.

Problem solved.

Oh, heaven forbid!

Basing voting decisions on this travesty is a certain recipe for the end of democracy in America. Crass disrespect for “debate” opponents and the fictitious rules of the forum — which both participants have previously agreed to — is an art that Trump has mastered and polished to a high gloss.

Trump will play the strong man and foolish viewers will relish his performance.

We all should fear for the America that our children and grandchildren will inherit if our body politic continues to engage in this caricature (grotesquely exaggerated representation) of democracy.

Day and wife, Ruth, have lived in Pullman since 1972. In 2004, he retired after 32 years as a science communicator on the Washington State University faculty. His interests and reading are catholic (small c) and peripatetic.