As we realize the catastrophic impact of our response to the COVID-19 epidemic, it’s crucial to acknowledge the profound, long-lasting effects on our children’s education. Many will struggle to make up for the learning loss from unnecessarily closed schools. The staggering borrowing to offset income losses from a shutdown economy will burden us for years.

Those in charge, like Anthony Fauci, owe the nation an apology on many levels, from scientifically unsupported policies to the apparent coverup of the pandemic’s laboratory origins. Instead, the good doctor gets a friendly reception on his book tour. My series on COVID left no doubt about my feelings about our actions from March ’20 on. Out front of every lousy decision was Dr. Fauci. Yet, welcoming Dr. Fauci as some hero in progressive stops nationwide is commonplace.

It’s as if everything we learned about the pandemic and our awful response missed a large part of the electorate. We see similar blindness among many when it comes to the Gaza War. Brutely attacked, Israel counter-attacked against the Hamas perpetrators. In contravention of the accepted rules of war, Hamas has located its military in heavily populated areas, hospitals, schools, and Mosques. Breaking the prohibition of using civilians, especially women and children, as human shields have resulted in preventable civilian casualties; the leader of Hamas tells the world how little they value Palestinian lives by saying they’re winning world opinion with the increasing civilian deaths. Yet, the progressive left blames Israel.

Somehow, the world’s progressives expect Israel to ensure Gazans are well-fed and protected. I can find no instance in history where the ones attacked have taken on such responsibility. Yet, the progressive world and allied institutions and media hold Israel to a higher standard than anyone else. This stance is the very definition of bigotry.

No matter what the progressives claim, there is no famine or genocide in Gaza. Hamas is the Gazan’s chosen government and the ones responsible for the people’s woes. If there are problems with food distribution, it isn’t Israel’s fault.

A recent Fox News poll shows “Demcracy” emerged as a top election issue. To some, it means Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, with January 6, 2020, as the prime example. To others, it’s the lawfare against Trump, with Alvin Bragg’s New York felony convictions levied against the former president the prime example.

This division is the problem. On issue after issue, a large segment views it differently than an equally large group. Many people receive information from like-minded sources, so we may look at the same things but draw a completely different picture. Add the economy, the border, crime, inflation, national debt, and abortion to the ones I’ve just discussed, and we’ll find the same disagreement.

The upcoming debate may garner a vast viewership. We’ll all see and hear the same things in real-time, but our conditioning will cause us to perceive what is said differently. Just as we continue to see our COVID-19 response, Gaza, threats to democracy, or any other issue through our preconceived ideas, what the candidates say may make little or no difference.

Whether Trump or Biden gets a bump from the debate won’t depend on the candidate’s command of the issues; how they act and perform will determine who gains or loses. Whether Biden shows any age-related problems or Trump turns in an obnoxious performance will matter.

Given the nation’s problems, we should form an idea of which one has the best solutions from their debate answers. This course would mean agreeing on the basic facts and data about the problems. Agreement on the basics can only happen once we try to see things from the other side and understand why they view things the way they do.

Until we get out of our respective bubbles, it will be like watching the Lincoln-Doglas debates only to see who trips leaving the stage. In any case, the second debate will feature at least one new participant.