Making Things Worse: Saturday Political Soap Box 241

I understand the instincts.  I really do.

In times of real national emergency, we want to do the right thing.  We want to rally around each other, and do our best to help each other, and support the leaders of the country in their efforts to see us through the crisis.

Many of my friends, those who have long since woken up to the horrors of Trumpism, are disturbed by the fact that this malignant clown has had a slight uptick in approval.

I don't like it. You don't like it.  It defies common sense based on the truly, unprecedentedly awful job he is doing.

Keep in mind that this rallying effect is normal.  President Bush Sr.'s support flew as high a 90% during the Gulf War.  It did not last.  President Bush Sr. did not win a second term.

President Bush Jr.'s support rose in the terrible flush of 9/11, although it could be argued it was their own negligence and inattention that made it possible.  Initially, the support for the Iraq War was so strong that to oppose put you in harm's way.  I remember because I personally experienced it.

But Bush Jr's rise did not last forever.  Katrina and the economic collapse sunk him.

Why can't people see what an awful job Trump is doing?

First, many people, for better or worse, only abstractly pay attention to the news, particularly political.  They know there is a crisis, but they're not highly aware of how the President is mishandling it.  The most dominant political impulse I see on Facebook is...STOP TALKING ABOUT POLITICS.  THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO TALK ABOUT POLITICS!  Part of it is that people don't understand we live in a democracy (theoretically), and political engagement is vital to its successful functioning.

Second, a large portion of Americans gets their political news from right-wing media, such as Fox News and Christian right radio, that are propaganda arms of the current administration.  Their view of reality is entirely skewed.

Third, many of us, of all political stripes, are more concerned about what can be done than what is being done wrong.  Their attention is not focused on the wrongdoings of the administration, even though they may be dimly aware of it.

All that said, it is important to recognize that the rallying effect around this President is muted and much lower than previous rallies.

Make no mistake.  He is making things worse.  Much, much worse.

He was very slow to realize there was a crisis to address.  He ignored intelligence warnings to take this seriously.

He was more concerned with minimizing the numbers and under-reporting than he was in helping people.  He didn't want cruise ship passengers to be brought to the United States because it would increase our numbers and make us look bad.

Any step he has done to aid us has been done slowly and begrudgingly,

He called it a hoax until he could no longer deny it, and then denied he never called it a hoax.

He tried to set states against each other in competing for medical supplies.

It is the Ukraine quid pro quo with human lives at stake, where he pays attention to state Governors based on how nice they are to him.  Make no mistake - PEOPLE WILL DIE BECAUSE OF THIS NONSENSE.

He has muttered about bringing us out of social distancing by Easter.  Why?  Does he think it will be over then?  At a time when our COVID-19 cases and deaths have not yet even peaked?

Some people say it is aspirational and trying to give us hope.

I can only answer with a word I have never used on my blog before -

BULLSHIT.

He's bored.  He wants to get out to his normal life of golf and hobnobbing with the Mar-A-Lago elite.  But that's not the truly monstrous part.

The monstrous part is that he KNOWS we won't be over it.  And he doesn't care.  He KNOWS people will die in larger numbers and that our hospitals will be overwhelmed.  He KNOWS and DOESN'T CARE.

Why?  Because he values the economy more.  He values making money for himself and his rich buddies more than the 3% or more that may die of this virus.  He thinks his best path to re-election lies in good economic numbers.

This isn't policy differences anymore. It's pure malignant evil. It is massive, willful ignorance on a life-threatening level. 

Will enough people wake up to put an end to this terrible administration?

I pray so.  And I pray that right and decent people, like Governor Cuomo, and other caring Governors (and there have been both Democratic and Republican Governors that are doing the right thing), like Dr. Anthony Fauci and other experts that do not let Trump warp the truth, like the millions on the frontlines (health care workers, first responders, grocery store and other retail workers), like those who are pushing policy solutions for all of us (Sanders, Warren, AOC, and many others), like each of you who are sacrificing to maintain social isolation.

We will get through this, despite the narcissistic clown in the White House.  There are too many good people in this country to do otherwise.

But I'm asking - whether in the forefront or back of your mind -

remember the evil that he has done.  And hold him to account.

There will be a day of reckoning.

He will reap what he has sown.