The 2020 Presidential election was going to be the most consequential choice Americans would make since the election of 1860, the one that preceded the Civil War. America was faced with a clear choice: endorse Donald Trump, or turn away from his outdated and extreme views.
Laissez Faire
The current President’s philosophy is one that has played through our history. From William McKinley to Herbert Hoover, Donald Trump has followed their example of laissez faire capitalism, assured in the faith that what’s “good for General Motors” is good for the country. He’s also used the blunt instrument of tariffs and trade wars to try to bully other nations into line.
In the Reagan years it was called “trickle down” economics. Put the money in at the top, to the wealthiest Americans, and like a “drip” coffee pot, eventually it would drip down to the poorest. It didn’t work in Reagan’s years; but what it did do was start a trend in “income inequality” that results in today’s extremes. The top one percent of Americans owns more wealth than the entire middle class (Forbes).
And Mr. Trump has corrupted the Teddy Roosevelt view of “speak softly, but carry a big stick”. Mr. Trump does everything but speak softly, streaming tweets like vomit from a drunk, and while he brags about his “big stick” (the military), he continually demonstrates his disdain for them, and is unwilling to actually use their power.
Racism
But the perhaps the most significant trend of the Trump Administration is one towards white extremism. Stephen Miller, a known white supremacist, is a key advisor to the President (NPR). The policies they have shaped in immigration and civil rights are ones that are more familiar to the America of the “Know Nothings” in the 1850’s, or the Ku Klux Klan era of the 1920’s.
Mr. Trump is not directly to blame for the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the subsequent civil unrest, but his statements, often written by Miller, gave license to police brutality. And he now is trying to use the unrest to agitate his supporters, spouting Richard Nixon’s dog whistle line of “law and order” as a way to suppress minority rights.
And this President has made it clear that there are “no rules” or norms that will restrict his behavior. His campaign sought aid from foreign nations, and he trampled on the independence of his own Justice Department. He had dismantled the internal checks and balances of many executive departments by firing their Inspector Generals, and brought a “Roy Cohn” in as his Attorney General. He is a President of the United States who was impeached on clear evidence of using the finances of the United States to further his own personal political goals. And now, we find he has been silent as the Russian government placed bounties on the heads of American soldiers in Afghanistan.
The Oath
All of these issues and many more (health insurance, for example) would have made for a lively Presidential campaign. But now they pale before the President’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, and the ensuing economic collapse.
The Presidential oath is sworn in front of the nation at the inauguration, and calls for the President to “…preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States”. To do that, the President must first protect the nation. Donald Trump, forty-fifth President of the United States, failed in that task like no President has ever done before. He ignored warnings about the COVID-19 virus from his intelligence and scientific advisors at a time when it might have been possible to control the spread.
And he did it for political reasons. He didn’t have time for a pandemic; he had an impeachment removal to avoid and an election to win. And he didn’t have time for problems with China; he was too busy negotiating his “fantastic deal”. So by the time there was a federal response to the virus, it was too late, and too embedded.
A Clear Failure
COVID-19 was not Donald Trump’s fault. But the failure of the United States to react and control the disease is at his doorstep. It only takes looking at other nations in the world to see what might have been. France, Germany, and most of the rest of the European Union have COVID under control. Even the United Kingdom and Italy, who had a difficult time with the disease, now are reopening carefully.
But here in the United States, the President applied his “laissez faire” philosophy to dealing with disease. He ignored it, and then after it was too late to control it, passed responsibility for action to state governors. He then proceeded to hamstring the governor’s responses, causing the disease to have even more opportunity to spread. His malpractice hasn’t stopped yet: even yesterday he demanded, yes demanded, that public schools open. This even though his own scientists tell him that they could provide a hotbed for COVID transmission in the community.
Campaign 2020
But if schools don’t open, parents can’t go to work. If they aren’t working, the economy cannot begin to recover before November. And if the economy isn’t getting better, then Mr. Trump doesn’t think he can win reelection. So open “the damn” schools; that’s the only choice the Trump Administration wants to offer.
Joe Biden’s not campaigning from his basement. He’s actually in the “garden room” in his home in Delaware. And he should stay there. Donald Trump is so busy shooting himself in the foot Biden doesn’t need to do anything.
