We’re # 1

“We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning”
-Donald Trump May 25, 2016

I don’t think this is what then-candidate Trump had in mind when he promised to “make America great again” as he rode a wave of nationalistic discontent to his unlikely triumph over Hillary Clinton in the presidential election four years ago. But the U.S. is clearly the world leader in Covis-19 cases and deaths with the end of the scourge nowhere in sight due in no small part to Trump’s incompetence and a policy that basically amounts to wishful thinking. Long gone are the days when the pandemic was a blue state problem, and Trump attacked Democratic governors for daring to question his “leadership.”

Yes, the plague is now hitting the red states of Florida, Texas and Arizona, putting even those states in play for the upcoming election. And, unlike the past in this country, we cannot put partisan differences aside during a time of crisis, even when our very lives are at stake. Even so simple a step as wearing face masks to prevent the spread of the virus is a political issue for those who believe that endangering others is okay as a matter of personal liberty, prodded on by our Fearless Leader. I have only two words to those resisters: Herman Cain.

The founding of this country was based on an ahistorical belief in the rights of the individual, but the current emphasis on “my rights” ignores the equally unique concept of the common good. Personal liberty stops when it impinges on the public welfare. And there is no more basic component of society than the right not to be dead.

Of course, even Trump cannot be blamed for a one hundred year plague that has tanked the economy and undercut his chief argument for re-election: a surging economy under his stewardship, girded by lower taxes for the rich and a reckless disregard of any regulation, sensible or not. But by ignoring the advice of health care experts, he continues to insist on reopening the economy and having students return to school, thereby cynically risking lives for the sake of his re-election.

Even I, though, can’t blame everything on Trump. Young people continue to crowd the beaches of Florida, California and New Jersey, believing themselves immune from the most serious consequences of the virus, and comprise much of the record number of new cases that we see every day. But, what do you expect when the besieged Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, is labelled “pathetic” when she warns of new more dangerous phase of the pandemic, not merely feeding only good news to the president?

So, here we are, over 4 million cases, approaching 160,000 deaths and the president obsessed with TikTok. He rants about the coming fraudulent election and uses racist tropes to warn about mostly peaceful protests against racial injustice. While his standing in the polls continues to deteriorate, no one is counting him out. There is a certain human tendency to support authoritarianism, especially in times of crisis. And, just maybe, as he continues to believe, the virus will “just disappear” some day. It would be a perverse form of justice if that day is November 4.