Death by Denial

Greetings,

“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Trump’s chilling remark hasn’t been tested literally (as of today), but the reasoning behind it has. 5^th Avenue is in a city that has seen 24,167 of the state’s 33,648 covid deaths. So far. Not all of these deaths can be placed at Trump’s feet but many can, and they join over 250,000 corpses piled on a metaphorical 5^th Avenue that slinks from New York to Hawaii. And Trump was right, because he didn’t lose any voters except the ones he actually killed. In fact he gained almost over 100,000 from his 2016 NY total.

Donald Trump gleefully says ‘he takes no responsibility’ for Covid, but that’s yet another lie. He took responsibility for it when he placed his tiny little hand on a Bible he never read, grunted an oath he didn’t comprehend, and entered an office he could never fill. Despite what FOX told him for years the American Presidency is not ALL golf and handshakes. There are situations that demand action, despite any political costs, where inaction is incompetence at best and treason at worst.

It didn’t have to be like this. The Covid pandemic is not Donald Trump’s fault, but the US response to it is. He crippled us even before it started by ending the White House Pandemic Response Team in 2018, but from the very beginning of the pandemic itself, Trump’s biggest worry hasn’t been a plague killing Americans but the possible impact on his presidency. He’s acted on that difference; denying the reality and ‘governing’ for optics rather than effect. Here’s just a few lowlights from the last year…

January 2020– first Covid case reported.

February– Tells Bob Woodward how deadly the virus is. Tells us it will go away in April.

March– Tells Republican Senators “We’ve done a great job”. Tells Woodward “To be honest with you, I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

April– Recommends bleach and UV light to treat virus. Emphasizes ‘voluntary’ nature of face masks.

May– Notes ‘testing is overrated’. US passes 100,000 dead.

June– “If we didn’t do testing, we’d have no cases.”

July– US passes 150,000 dead.

August– “It is what it is.” Trump activates Defense Production Act to supply PPE and ventilators; does not use it.

September– US passes 200,000 dead. “We have done an incredible job, and we’re doing an incredible job”

October– After Trump and more than a dozen staff test positive for Covid, he returns to live, mostly maskless, tightly-packed rallies. White House begins referring to the pandemic in the past tense.

November– US passes 250,000 dead. Trump complains Pfizer and FDA withheld vaccine until after election.

People in general, much less people in positions of overwhelming power, must be held accountable for their actions. When four people died in the Benghazi fiasco, the Republicans rightly demanded investigations into the Obama Administration’s responsibility. However, their zeal for accountability reached the absurd when 10 investigations found no impropriety and their initially valid reasons for suspicion gave way to wallowing in innuendo against political enemies. Now we’re faced with an administration’s response to Covid that has cost more American lives in one year than the Vietnam war cost in 10. There’s valid reason for suspicion and inquiry, and the rule of law requires we act.

No, he hasn’t shot anyone, but Donald Trump’s denial of reality has killed thousands of our fellow Americans just as surely as if he shot them himself. His desecrations will end in just under 2 months, but he WILL kill thousands more before he’s out. We must… MUST hold him accountable. Not with torches and pitchforks, no matter how justified that might be, but with proper, cool-headed, impartial investigations. And trials and jail if warranted. History will make its judgement regardless of what we do, but it can’t be the only judgement made. Donald Trump needs to be told explicitly, by the country he’s abused, that he was wrong. We’re paying the price for his ego and incompetence right now… he must, eventually, as well.

Make a great day,

aaazTomSignature