Janis Joplin – Me and Bobby McGee
Vice Presidential Debate
I listened intently to the Vice Presidential Debates last night. Unlike the week before, it was a “traditional” American political debate. The candidates tried to make their points, pointedly ignored the questions they didn’t want to answer, and interacted only occasionally. Vice President Pence, as the only man on the dais, was likely to be accused of “mansplaining” no matter what. But he consistently ignored moderator Susan Page’s cues that his time was up. And he was quietly condescending to his opponent the Senator from California. That proved the point anyway.
The “fly” may have been the highlight of the night. The fact that an insect could land on the Vice President’s head, and stay there for minutes, showed how unanimated the debate really was. But for those parents who were horrified when their children watched the Presidential debates last week (it was only last week), this was one where the kids could at least hear a coherent difference of opinion.
My summary analysis is that the Vice Presidential debate probably didn’t change many minds. Mike Pence did his “job” defending the President, and managed to get his “hit” lines out about the “Green New Deal” and Senator Harris’s “liberal” voting record. And Kamala Harris did her job as well, explaining the Biden/Harris plan clearly, and showing the “gravitas” that the running mate of the seventy-seven year old Biden needs to have. Just as Pence is a Vice President from “central casting”, so Harris definitely showed she could be the first woman to be next in line for the Presidency.
Super-Spreader
Somewhere buried in the Vice President’s syrupy responses was one regarding the COVID “super-spreader” event at the White House, when President Trump announced the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. In the very “traditional” Rose Garden ceremony, chairs were set close together and most attendees eschewed wearing facemasks. Thirty-four COVID cases have been traced to the White House, with many of them sitting in that close packed crowd in the Rose Garden.
The Vice President said that the ceremony was “outdoors” as government scientists recommended. He never really responded to the lack of masks, the shoulder-to-shoulder seating, or the casual handshakes, hugs, and head to head conversations that took place.
But Pence did emphasize that the Administration believes in “freedom”. “We are about freedom and the freedom of the American people,” he said. His point was that Americans have the “freedom to decide” what they want to do about the pandemic, and the “government” shouldn’t regulate their behavior.
Just a Word
This fits completely with the Trump COVID strategy. The President has spent the last six months undermining America’s faith in scientific findings. He has forced the doctors “in charge” of the COVID crisis to change their public opinions. He even made them claim they made errors in judgment, in order to fit his theme. Donald Trump has set a national example of ignoring precautions, including his latest theatrical display of ripping his mask off.
He gave Governors the “freedom” to decide how to respond to the COVID crisis. But almost immediately began to criticize those Governors that took action to try to stem the spread. He politicized their efforts, making COVID regulations into “Democrat” and “Republican” responses. Even today, mask wearing and your choice for President are closely correlated.
And now Mike Pence argues that they are doing all of that for “freedom”. Americans should be “free” to decide how they individually respond to COVID. And when the White House held an event that violated all of the “rules”, it was the participants “free” choice to be there.
Freedom Ends at My Face
The problem is that COVID is not a “free speech” issue. It isn’t a “choice”. The virus will do what the virus does: spread, infect, sicken and in some cases kill. The President is exercising his “freedom” to ignore quarantine rules, wandering the White House without a mask. Workers there aren’t “free” to avoid the viral spread and do their jobs. The President is essentially forcing the virus on them. Someone is going to die, and it’s dying for the “freedom” of Donald Trump.
And that summarizes what the Trump Administration wants America to do. They want us to “be free” to go to restaurants, crowd into bars, buy the cheap cruise ship tickets. We should “be free”to essentially act as if the COVID pandemic isn’t here. Like the non-existent Trump Health Care Plan, the President wants us to depend on a still non-existent “cure” and a non-existent vaccine. If we are “free” from the basic rules of pandemic, over a century old, then that will make the short-term economy better. And since short-term gains are the only thing left to get Trump re-elected, he demands that we be “free”.
“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”. And that’s what the President and Vice President face today: nothing left to lose in leading America to continuing pandemic disaster. By using “freedom” as their guidon, their banner, they are leading us to more infection and death. At least Americans are free to make that choice in November.
