Refreshing! The Trump v Biden debate can be seen as a fresh start.

Zihni Özdil is a Dutch historian who writes a weekly column for a Dutch quality newspaper: the NRC.

In his column of last Saturday he delivers a positive take on the first presidential debate that is globally regarded as a disgrace. He sees it as refreshing instead. He has a point, despite receiving a lot of negative feedback on his article, presumably from people who, like me, judged the performance by the two candidates and notably that of Trump, to be below the lowest of expectations.

I too have written an article on Medium spouting the, not so original, point of view that the debate was beyond the pale.

I think Mr. Özdil provides a more insightful take on this, and I found that it is possible to hold both viewpoints as true at the same time and without conflict.

Mr. Özdil argues how the intelligent, charming and inspiring Obama created one of the most successful political marketing campaigns we have ever seen (no, he doesn’t say this about anything and everything like Trump does). Obama’s eloquence, his ability to command attention, to generate trust and to ooze gravitas inspired many voters who, after having been disillusioned time and again by their political representatives and had given up on voting altogether, once more bought into the ‘Hope’ and ‘Change’ rallying cries. ‘Hope’ and ‘Change’, so that they could again participate in an economy that until then only rewarded and protected the rich and powerful. They voted en masse. The disillusioned. The…