If you watched the vice-presidential debate expecting a charming Tim Walz to reduce a cringey J.D. Vance to a puddle of conservative tears, you were probably disappointed.
But if a rhetorical evisceration in a vice-presidential debate determined the outcome of a. presidential election, Lloyd Bentsen’s humiliation of Dan Quayle would have given us President Michael Dukakis.
Walz and Vance appeared to have that history in mind as they avoided each other’s jugulars.
Walz was largely uninterested in real-time fact-checking of Vance’s steady stream of brazen lies, such as “I never supported a national ban” and Trump “salvaged Obamacare.” Nor did he bring up “childless cat ladies” or any controversial quotes from Vance’s past.
Similarly, Vance shied away from assaults on Walz’s character that he previously leveled on the campaign trail, such as that Walz committed “stolen valor.” Each went out of their way to say they agreed with parts of the other’s answers.
Vance may have recognized that his reputation was in desperate need of rehabilitation, and 90 minutes of snide comments wouldn’t help. Walz may have recognized that he has a reputation to preserve, and straining to pin down a consummate goalpost mover like Vance might have undercut his regular-guy persona.
The unexcepted civility produced a surprising favorability boost for both candidates in CNN’s instant poll of debate watchers. The share of respondents with a favorable impression of Walz jumped from 46 percent before the debate to 59 percent after. For Vance, the shift was 30 to 41 percent.
If Americans liked seeing two candidates from opposite parties engage in a debate free of narcissistic, meandering vitriol, perhaps they will conclude that we could have more of that once the narcissistic, meandering, vitriolic Donald Trump is no longer dictating the tone of the national debate.
Trump may not be the only bombastic figure in American politics today. But he is exponentially the most demagogic. He has single-handedly degraded the standards of honesty and decency. His capacity for sowing division is boundless.
Tuesday’s debate gave us a glimpse of what our politics could be like once Trump no longer demands our constant attention like an unruly toddler. If enough swing voters are exhausted by Trump’s tantrums, they may decide on Election Day to put in the proverbial corner for good.
Of course, the post-Trump GOP that Vance represents is hardly worth celebrating. The Ohio senator lies as readily as Trump. He is at least as committed to outlawing abortion, spewing carbon emissions, and deporting immigrants as Trump.
In his worst moment of the night, Vance showed his unwillingness to uphold democracy when he refused to accept that Trump lost the 2020 election. Walz, in contrast, had his best moment calling out Vance’s “damning non-answer” to the question, “Did [Trump] lose the 2020 election?” If Walz had relentlessly dogged Vance all night with fact-checks, perhaps that moment would not have stuck out and attracted so much attention.
Unlike Trump, Vance has more capacity for disingenuous code-switching. For much of the campaign, he has echoed Trump’s divisive tactics. But the Yale Law School graduate also knows how to get out of the MAGA echo chamber and send soothing signals to liberals and moderates.
For example, after falsely denying his past support for a national abortion ban, Vance raised eyebrows by acknowledging Republicans are losing the abortion debate: “We have got to earn people’s trust back. And that’s why Donald Trump and I are committed to pursuing pro-family policies. Making childcare more accessible, making fertility treatments more accessible, because we’ve got to do a better job at that.”
A post-Trump GOP that peddles Trumpism with smoke and mirrors may be a steeper challenge than Trump himself. But most Democrats will prefer that challenge to the challenge of a President Trump 2.0.
Vance does not deserve excessive praise for cloaking a pile of lies with a scrim of civility. But Democrats can highlight the civility of last night to remind undecided voters—who tend to be cynical about politics—that the dark discourse of the Trump era can end once Trump is defeated for good.
