Only two weeks to go until Christmas 2020, and by that time 315,000 Americans will have perished from Covid-19.
President Donald Trump, our Commander-in-Chief, gave up the battle against the coronavirus plague about three months ago and focused his energies on his re-election campaign.
There’s a term for this in the military: it’s called dereliction of duty. In government it’s called malfeasance and in high school sports it’s called “quittin’ on the team”. It’s something that self-centered losers do when they can’t take the pressure. It’s the coward’s easy way out.
When Donald J. Trump was younger, in business, and developed a lame venture that quickly flamed out, he resorted to another version of quitting: bankruptcy. Trump did this numerous times, bailing out on a dumb idea, abandoning workers who’d thrown in with him, and stiffing vendors and investors who’d made the mistake of trusting him.
Trump is notorious for this in New York, his home state, where he lost the latest election by 2 million votes and would have a hard time being elected City Dog Catcher. His infamy there is part of the reason that he recently moved his official residence to Florida.
The 315,000 Covid-19 fatalities will undoubtedly balloon to almost 400,000 by the time Trump’s term expires on January 20, 2021.
That’s a lot of dyin’, particularly from a little virus that the President claimed to have “under control” way back in February 2020. He knew then that it was serious shit but didn’t tell America the truth. In fact, he pooh-poohed recommended public health measures and acted like he knew more than the scientists who specialize in epidemics. Concerns about Covid-19 were “overblown”, according to Trump.
Donald Trump has always had a very high regard for his own mental acuity: in fact, he’s called himself “a stable genius”. In addition to insulting the intelligence of medical professionals, he’s made a habit of deriding judges, meteorologists, pollsters, academics, his appointed Cabinet officials and pretty much anyone else who bases their opinions on facts.
President Trump ‘s also disparaged the intelligence and wisdom of top military brass, on several occasions stating that he is “smarter than all of the Generals”.
That sounds a lot like “fake news”.
Very few Generals In history have lost something as big as the Battle of Covid-19. By mid-January, Commander-in-Chief Trump will have lost almost as many American souls in this war as there were American combat deaths in both World Wars (408,073). And he managed it in one year.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee probably came closest, losing 258,000 Rebel soldiers…in four years. I suppose that Hitler, as German Commander-in-Chief, did worse, but who wants to be compared to that Nazi idiot.
As President, Trump is also the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. economy. Thanks to his lame generalship of the pandemic war, the economy tanked and tens of millions of Americans are out of work. Had Donald J. Trump taken the time to have a televised fireside chat with citizens, honestly told them what he had learned about the coronavirus, emphasized the seriousness of the matter, and asked every person, regardless of political party, to enlist in the war against Covid…hundreds of thousands of Americans would not have died and the economy would have stayed healthy.
That’s the kind of leadership that wins wars. (And, of course, not quitting when the going gets tough.)
Instead, self-centered President Trump devoted his energies to holding campaign rallies, spending most of his waking hours Tweeting and re-Tweeting stupid things, and golfing.
He lost the election and, now having plenty of time to lead the Covid-19 fight, has recently spent most of his time publicly whining about “fraudulent” votes and ferreting out disloyal Administration staffers and Republican Party state level officials who didn’t work hard enough to help him win re-election.
That would include members of the State and Federal judiciaries who have tossed something like fifty frivolous, fact-challenged election lawsuits.
Two days ago, the Supreme Court, with a strong majority of very conservative judges (three appointed by Trump himself) slammed the door on the last big lawsuit. Trump being Trump immediately called them cowards…for refusing to disenfranchise tens of millions of American voters with the stroke of a pen.
It appears now that Donald J. Trump, after leaving office on January 20, 2021 intends to head up a government “in exile”, pretending to be the legitimate President, and will be Commander-in-Chief of the sour grapes Republican effort to keep the Democrats from accomplishing anything during the next four years.
President-elect Joe Biden has made it clear that his number one priority is to win the war against the coronavirus. It will take leadership to convince all Americans to engage in the fight, follow public health guidelines, and get vaccinated.
The latter will be a tricky task, as the new President will have to convince millions of anti-vaxxers and Trump loyalists that trusting science is the patriotic thing to do and probably the only way to ensure that the economy recovers quickly.
It will be interesting to see if the nincompoops who proudly disdained facemasks and shouted “Open up the economy!” will actually join in the battle to restore it or will continue to play destructive partisan games under the leadership of ex-President Trump.
If I had to wager, I’d put my money on continued nincompoopery.