3.) Viral Politics
In February, world stock markets
started tanking as the effects of COVID-19 on global production and consumption
began to become evident. Donald Trump
panicked. He saw his reelection campaign—based
upon his arrogant (and erroneous) claims that he alone had blessed America with
the most prosperous economy on earth—dragged down precipitously with the dive
of the Dow Jones.
So he did the first thing
that came to his mind. The first thing
that always comes to his mind; his knee-jerk reaction to anything he sees as a
threat to his personal bubble of dominance and celebrity.
He lied.
He obfuscated. He downplayed. He scoffed.
And as it became apparent
that all those things were not going to stop COVID from taking hold in the US,
he ramped up the blame. It’s the
Democrats’ fault. It’s China’s
fault. It’s the WHO’s fault. It’s the doctors’ fault. Along with, “I take no responsibility at all.”
THIS is how a pandemic
becomes political. Put an ignorant,
pompous, self-aggrandizing, pandering con man cult leader in charge of one of
the premier nations of the world. And
when he’s faced with something he perceives as a threat to his power and position, and he can’t lie or blame his way around it, he creates
utter chaos. All in an effort to save
his own ass. Because that is all he
cares about.
That’s how we end up with
citizens spitting on each other at supermarkets, screaming about their “rights”
when asked to mask up; promoting the idea that old people should be willing to
die in order to “save the economy;” studiously aping the man in the highest office
in the land, the guy who shamelessly lies, bullies, obfuscates and points
fingers in order to make things go his way.
We could never have hoped
that the dyed orange leopard in the White House would change his spots, get
serious and LEAD the nation through this quagmire. Or understand that he didn’t have the
necessary knowledge or experience to do so, and yield the floor to experts who
did. We know that would be far too
opposite of his nature to even consider.
But could we not have hoped
that he would just do…nothing?
If you can’t fix it, ignore
it. It will go away.
All he really had to do was
SHUT THE FUCK UP. Then we might at least
not have made a deadly disease an internal war. An “Us vs Them” situation. We might not be throwing “COVID parties” and
ripping masks off our neighbors’ faces and hiding in our homes because our
fellow citizens think it’s their patriotic duty to laugh off a pandemic and act
as if it isn’t happening.
But no.
He started out lying and
agitating and bullying. And he’s going
to go right on with that strategy. Every
day. Several times a day.
To what end? We don’t really know. The only thing we know for sure is, it won’t
be pretty.
Maybe the virus has been
over-hyped. Maybe we won’t be
overwhelmed with death and long-lasting health and economic effects that will
cripple the country.
But the politicization of
COVID19, if not the virus itself, has done lingering, devastating damage to the
spirit, the soul, of the United States of America.
Because a vain, ignorant
cult-leader “president” couldn’t leave it alone.
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