We have reached the point where my observation is that Trump has pretty much thrown in the towel on seriously trying to do what is best to solve the pandemic for all Americans, and his only concern is to win the election. Yes, I know it was clear that that was his main interest from the first -- which is why he didn't want to let infected cruise ship passengers onto U.S. soil because that would make "the numbers" go up, and why he tried to downplay everything about the coronavirus infection for two months and claim it would all go away like a "miracle." But now, he's pushed aside all pretense of it being something he cares about solving in order to save American lives and the economy. Now, it's just -- slam everything that he thinks is in the way of his election campaign and to hell with the rest. If he truly cared about "The Economy" as the economy, he'd know that you have to solve the health issue first, and the economy will follow. But not doing that, the economy to Trump is just a means to an end. His election.
To be clear, he's not against the pandemic going away -- I'm sure he'd love for it to. But that's only a result to hope for, like a "miracle." After all, only last week he said that "with or without a vaccine, it's going away." That's not a serious effort to resolve a health crisis, it's a wish list. There's no plan to resolve the pandemic, no plan for national testing, no plan to support the American public with 36 million out of work who have been crushed financially, no plan to distribute a vaccine if and when one is found, no plan to manufacture PPEs, no plan to rebuild the economy for jobs that are not coming back. No plan for whatever topic you want to add here. He just wants to win the election -- as if ignoring all of that is a cool game plan. He's just flailing. Consider that just yesterday, he attacked both the state of Michigan and the state of Nevada for them building vote-by-mail programs and threatened them that he'd withhold funds. Forget for a moment that it's 100% legal for these states to pursue voting by mail -- but in what universe is it a smart campaign strategy to threaten to withhold emergency funds to states during a worldwide pandemic where 95,016 Americans have already died?????!!! But it's even worse that that. And "that" is mind-numblingly horrible. Because Michigan is one of the main battleground states that Trump flipped in 2016 by only a paltry 10,704 votes. And is currently behind in the polls there. Do Trump and his crackerjack campaign staff think threatening to withhold funds from Michigan is...smart?? Politicians usually open the nozzle and pour money into states they want to win. This is not only inexplicably nuts, but all the more so when their governor Gretchen Whitmer -- who Trump has derisively called "the woman from Michigan -- has a 71% approval for her handling of the crisis. And especially threatening to withhold funds on the very day when, on top of the coronavirus crisis, Michigan had a monstrous flooding emergency when a dam broke. (A dam, by the way, which the editor of the Detroit Metro Times reports is owned by a man who has ignored warnings from federal regulators for years -- and is a strong Trump supporter.) Michigan? A major battleground state. Seriously?? If you actually cared about helping people, you wouldn't even think about acting this way. But then, in fairness, when your only concern is mucking others in order to win an election, acting this way is pretty insane all on its own. And of course there's more. On and on and on an on and on and on more. To relay it all would end up just being a relentless list of Trump's Daily Schedule. But it's not only that we see it every day now, see the open disdain growing more and more, it's now at the point where that's close to all that we see. Finding the serous acts to resolve this crisis -- or anything (witness the Department of Justice bizarrely dropping the case against Michael Flynn, who not only plead guilty, but Trump himself fired!) -- are nearing non-existent. It's put the blinders on, we must win, win, win the election. Any challenge, any disagreement, any difficult question he gets -- most-especially if asked by a woman -- is dismissed as "nasty" (when, of course, in reality, the definition of pretty much any question being asked during a pandemic by its very nature is going to be "nasty." You are not going to get many, "What's your favorite food?" questions during a pandemic. The best question you can hope for during a pandemic is, "Did the death total go down today?"). When you make suggestions about taking bleach or disinfectants or using high-powered UV rays, all of which will kill people, then you've given up any pretense of even seeming like you're trying. When you push a drug like hydroxychloroquine that has abundant dangerous side-effects, including causing heart problems and death, and that's your best medical suggestion (!), then you aren't even bothering to wave the white flag, but are just aimlessly wandering off into the desert with a "What the hell, they're on their own" attitude. And when your defense to making all these life-threatening suggestions is that "I work with a lot of doctors" -- you either are too lazy to understand this is an infantile response, or you just don't care what people think, because the only thing you care about is winning your election. (By the way, an insurance agent specializing in malpractice works with a lot of doctors. But I wouldn't suggest having surgery performed by one. Let alone having them advise you to just take an aspirin, because whatever you have will go away.) And again, when your goal is to win an election, if you ignore helping people and actively act to hurt them that's like The Worst Campaign Strategy ever. And now add to this that Republicans in the U.S. Senate have drunk the Kool-Aid and are following their lemming leader towards the edge by being on the verge of voting a subpoena for Hunter Biden, the son of Trump's presumptive opponent -- all because he was offered a lot of money for a job he wasn't qualified for and took it. Now, to be clear, there was a point last year when it made sense for Republicans to pursue the Burisma Oil Company in Ukraine and subpoena Hunter Biden. It would have been stupid and amounted to nothing, but at least the timing back then made sense. But...now?? Around nine months later, during a presidential campaign, when there's a pandemic and 1,595,081 Americans have been infected and 95,016 Americans have died so far and 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment -- Republicans want to subpoena Hunter fricking Biden for accepting a boatload of money for a job he wouldn't likely have to do anything for but sit on a corporate board...all the while Trump's own children and son-in-law (two of whom actively work in his administration) are raking in multi-millions purely by their relationship to Trump??? And the GOP think that a subpoena for Hunter Biden is a Good Idea??? This isn't just a horrifically terrible idea -- this is giving up all semblance of common sense and turning your life over to the cult leader who is leading you to your doom because you don't know what else to do because you went all-in with him far too long ago. Of course, there is something they could do. People do leave cults.. People do beg forgiveness. People do see the light. People do testify honestly under oath. People do choose to save themselves. But that takes a sense of humanity and having a conscience. And so Republicans appear to have made the decision to follow the man who has given up all pretense of acting to help those whose job it is he has sworn under oath to protect. Because all he wants is to win his election. And in doing so is crushing those around him and dooming himself. This isn't even Shakespearean any more. At one point, the Trump administration was a Shakespearean tragedy. But Shakespeare has majesty and poetry and art. At this point, Trump only has sludge. And the elected members of Congress enable him, are complicit with blood on their hands and follow him like lemmings who are trying to be dodos, which are extinct. This is about them. And yes, this is about Trump, too. Because even though we know who he is, his total disdain for everyone else to win his election now encompasses all his actions openly through every crevice and permeates the entire Republican Party.
4 Comments
Myles Berkowitz
5/21/2020 08:11:34 am
I think if someone gave Shakespeare the history of the Trump Presidency to write a play he would say, "I can't do anything with this. No one's going to believe this. People will believe in a ghost more than this stuff."
Reply
Barry Glasser
5/21/2020 09:17:00 am
Why hasn't the Democratic National Committee hired you to write their campaign commercials? Why hasn't Biden (Joseph not Hunter) hired you to write his campaign speeches? This is another of your supreme, sublime diatribes. Please keep ranting.
Reply
Robert Elisberg
5/21/2020 08:18:30 pm
My agent is playing hard ball. I don't mean he's being difficult, but that he's in South Korea literally playing in their baseball league. The good news is that that means I'm stuck here ranting... So, thanks and you get your wish.
Robert Elisberg
5/21/2020 08:13:14 pm
Interesting historical fact. That's how Shakespeare came to write the movie, "Ghost."
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
Categories
All
|
© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2024
|