Incontrovertible

"The evidence before this court is incontrovertible" Roger Waters, 1979

"The case against Donald Trump is open and shut" Kamala Harrris, 2020

"Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead." Barack Obama, 2020

For over four years, Trump has trampled on the norms of the presidency, and of common decency. The Democrats and the media, and basically anyone who engages in rational, fact based debate, have struggled to find a response.

Barack Obama, like his predecessors in the White House, has refrained from criticizing his successor. As things evolved, he has made statement obliquely critical of Trump but without mentioning him by name.

But tonight he had evidently concluded that Trump's disdain for protocol and tradition needed to be met in kind. So he abandoned the norm that past presidents don't criticize current incumbents; the gloves came off. As he said at the outset "It's not a normal time".

His critique was direct and searing; no more subtle digs. This was a full frontal assault. He called Trump out by name, a stunning break with tradition as shocking in its way as Trumps egregious behavior, yet a violation of norms that he and many Americans feel is necessitated by the gravity of the threat Trump poses to the country's standing in the world, and more fundamentally, the foundations of its democracy.

Here are a couple of extracts from his speech.

"I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care".

"But he never did. For close to four years now, he has shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves".

"Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job; because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead".

The contrast, too, was striking. Trump appears to have two modes: "on teleprompter/Quaaludes" or angry bluster with ludicrous hyperbolae ([shouting] "he wants to hurt religion, hurt God"). Obama delivered his critique with sadness, almost resignation, before his passionate call to action. 
 
He pointed out that many of the civil rights that have been won over the years had come a great personal cost to those who fought for them, and so taking the time to vote would be the least we could all do to preserve what previous generations had accomplished.

As with Harris' speech when Biden announced his VP pick, this was one for the history books.