Whitmire: Democracys at risk? This debate showed its already broken. [Video]

This is an opinion column.

Perhaps never has there been a presidential debate as important as what we saw Thursday night.

From the stage in Atlanta, Americans got to see, not a battle of ideas, but a clear demonstration of what the political parties have to offer — a choice between a deranged, bellicose liar or a shielded shut-in with the vitality of a reanimated corpse.

There are 330 million people in this country, and these two are what we have to pick from?

The value of the debate was not seeing who was fit to lead. It was a freakshow and the best exhibit of what has become of our so-called democracy.

Donald Trump was who Donald Trump has been, and who Donald Trump always will be. Republicans seem content with that.

But Biden showed us what his staffers have been trying to hide for quite some time — that he isn’t who he …