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Debate anxiety high? Me too.

So as I wait like all of you for the spectacle to unravel, I’m wondering why we’re even bothering with the exercise.

You don’t really need a debate, do you?

A simple side-by-side picture of Vice President Harris and former President Trump is all you need. Words are extraneous. They get in the way. By now, the candidates’ images are enough to evoke the truth and make the right decision for America.

When I see a picture of Harris, I think: Vice President. Trustworthy. Loyal. Competent. Woman. Choice. Fair. African American. Asian American. New America. One of us.

When I see a picture of Trump, I think:Convicted Felon, 34 counts.Insurrectionist. Communist Succubus (See Helsinki/Putin/2018). Wannabe Dictator.E. Jean Carroll. Stormy Daniels. Liar. Central Park 5. Racist. Sexist. No choice.

All that just from pictures, which are muted but still strike those chords inside you.

It’s a big sound. A debate just adds to the noise.

But if you must watch, and all good Americans really should, here’s a bingo card.

This one is provided courtesy of the LA Times’ Anita Chabria. It’s laid out in typical bingo fashion. The most likely ideas to come up in the debate are on the outside and move toward the white hot center.

And who is at the center?

Chabria puts “Willie Brown.” He’s the former Calif. Assembly Speaker who made waves at the DNC years ago when delegates were fought over and he demanded at the top of his lungs, “GIVE ME BACK MY DELEGATION.”

Brown went on to be Mayor of San Francisco, and he was a key benefactor of a young Kamala Harris. Brown was both mentor and paramour. Is that even relevant now? Will that come up in the debate?

It’s only relevant in that gossipy sense that brings emotion into the equation to overcome facts. So, of course, it will come up. Donald Trump doesn’t know to leave it alone. He likes to split the atom, as it were, and cause chaos. Truth is not on his agenda.

But it will be an act of his true self, and that’s what all voters need to see.

As former Rep. Liz Cheney said last week, “Every opportunity that Donald Trump gets to show the American people who he is,” is a good thing.

Last week in Austin, Cheney had some choice words for Trump and his manverse of supporters, calling them “misogynistic pigs.”

“Women around this country,” she told the crowd at the Texas Tribune Festival, “we’ve had enough.”

LIZ CHENEY AND DUTY IN TEXAS

For my run-up to the debate, I happened to be in Austin for the Texas Tribune Festival, a sort of Woodstock for political junkies and high information voters.

Texas is a strange state. The polls there show Trump up by 5 to 6 points. It’s far different from my California, the state with the most Asian Americans in the nation, where some polls show Harris up by as much as 24 points.

That’s probably why more Asian Americans live in California.

Cheney, the Jan. 6 Congressional committee leader, was a keynote guest at the Tribune Festival event, fresh from her announcement in North Carolina that she was voting for Harris. In Austin, she added to the news by announcing that her dad, a former GOP vice president Dick Cheney, was also voting for Harris.

Liz Cheney said she had no trouble convincing conservative friends that Trump, a man who is against NATO and Ukraine and is pro-tariffs (which would be inflationary and raise costs), is neither a conservative nor good for America.

“Which is why it’s important that [Harris] the vice president prevail,” Cheney told a packed audience in Austin’s Paramount Theater.

But she was quick to add her choice was not about politics.

“This isn’t a political decision,” Cheney said. “It’s very much based upon my view of what our duty is.”

Cheney, who I disagree with 99 percent of the time (she voted against government funding for mental health, for example), found the one thing where the majority of us should be able to stand together.

“Those of us who believe in the defense of our democracy, in the defense of our Constitution, and the survival of our republic, have a duty in this election cycle,” Cheney said. “[That duty] is to come together to put those things above politics.”

Too bad the debate won’t be so high-minded but mired in politics and rhetoric.

WHAT TRUMP AND HARRIS MUST DO TO WIN THE DEBATE

If Donald Trump wants to win the debate and perhaps even the election, he should simply be like the microphones at tonight’s event. Stay muted. Look presidential. But mostly he should “play nice.”

Tough for a bully to do.

Given the last New York Times poll was a virtual tie, with Trump at 48 percent and Harris at 47, being “nice” may be more persuasive among voters just tuning into the election cycle for the first time.

But in the days before the debate, Trump can’t seem to help himself. He’s talked about a “bloodbath” at the border if he’s not elected. He’s talked about locking up political opponents. And his running mate J.D. Vance has circulated a false story about immigrants from Haiti eating cats. (Vance has a cat thing.)

It’s all fearmongering stuff that in Trump’s mind will attract voters to him. I’m predicting he won’t stay muted. Trump won’t have a crowd to feed on. That means he’ll be relying on instinct. For him, that’s bad.

For Harris to win, she simply needs to stay prosecutorial and firm.No nonsense, but personal. And serious to contrast with the unserious man.

The polls suggest most people already know who Trump is. About a third of the electorate say they want to know more about Harris.

If she stays the course as “the prosecutor,” it should be clear–Harris is far from the person Trump calls “Comrade Kamala.” She was California’s AG, the top cop. She no softie, and definitely no “commie.”

That should help inform the voters. But it could also needle Trump to reveal his true self yet again—the unhinged narcissist and misogynist.

Note I didn’t talk much about issues in this column, aside from the “duty” expressed by Liz Cheney. That’s because the issues aren’t really why you vote for someone. If they were, Trump wouldn’t have taken over the Republican party so easily.

There’s something more visceral at work that gets us to make our choice and pick our candidate.

Easy if you’ve been following the campaign from day one.Tougher if you’re just tuning in for the first time—especially, if you’re an independent undecided voter in a swing state. They’re the voters the candidates are focused on.

Still, politicians aren’t robots (yet). They’re human. Even Trump. We’ve seen them both perform, react, and speak before.

But who knows what will happen when the stakes are this high and the mics are hot.

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NOTE: I will talk about this column and other matters on “Emil Amok’s Takeout,” my AAPI micro-talk show. Live @2p Pacific. Livestream on Facebook; my YouTube channel; and Twitter. Catch the recordings on www.amok.com.