Monday night Donald Trump told the nation that his ‘authority is total’. Initially it rendered me speechless. But speechless isn’t effective.
No, Mr. Trump, you do not have absolute authority. Not morally. Not ethically. Certainly not constitutionally. You are nothing more than a two-bit showman, a con artist who occupies what used to be the most powerful and influential position on the planet. You have diminished that position to what will go down resonating like the fall of Rome. A crackpot and self-styled dictator – you now have blood on your hands. As the county wakes up to the repercussions that your incompetence covered by selfish bullying have unleashed upon our people.
Yes, you still have the job. You have a great number of enthusiastic followers led by an entertainment network claiming to be news that has declared unadulterated fealty to you. Perhaps if FOXNEWS was all I watched I’d drink the Kool-Aid and ignore the fact that my daughter and mother are both in mortal danger resulting from your poor leadership. Although surely I would notice when your story changes daily even so. And you still frighten a meekly submissive Republican party that would gladly throw you under the bus (as you so gleefully do with them if they dare criticize you) if they believed that they would keep their positions of power and wealth in the next election.
Perhaps it’s time for those in congress who cower behind your abuses rethink their stance. Look at the backlash in last weeks Wisconsin primary. Even with only 5 of 180 polling stations in the democratic city of Milwaukee open citizens literally risked their lives to come out and vote against the party that betrayed them. Perhaps if those congressional members take a stand against what they know is wrong it will save them from the ignominy and shame that is the near certain fate if they don’t.
Yes, we need a plan to come back economically. Yes, it is critical. No one disagrees with that. But you are not the authority here, you have abdicated your leadership. Your inconsistency, irresponsibility and arrogance is appalling. Your bullying up until now has had a strange appeal and entertainment value – but as the nation sickens that appeal is fading.
We need a plan. A good plan. A consistent plan. A plan that doesn’t sacrifice long term business interests for your own personal shot term gains – gains that you somehow hope will assist your reelection. Yes, we need to reopen and emerge as a nation, a world, into the light. But your nearly casual disregard for the importance of the actual carnage that your temperamental rashness cannot be trusted to contain.
There will be death. There is already death at a scale that may have been prevented with timely action. Death that would have been lessoned greatly if time hadn’t been squandered, if warnings hadn’t been ignored. If the emergency contingency planning that you, Donald Trump, inherited with your office.
But here we are, and this is what we must work with. Death is already a daily number that we need to mitigate. This is an essential requirement to bring back and sustain the economy. Of course, you could order a grand opening on an arbitrary date, and there would be those who would celebrate it with a bang. It would undoubtedly flood a certain amount of wealth back into the system. But that would not sustain the economy. We went from less than 10 cases nationwide to our current numbers well over a half million in a number of weeks. Imagine a starting point of hundreds of thousands of active cases rather than the very few we started from and how quickly those hundreds of thousands of active cases would escalate with a sudden easement of our current efforts. Where something as innocuous as a school assembly or a sporting event could be the next Mardi Gras – spreading the virus far and wide.
I doubt there is a perfect plan to guarantee our safety out there. We need real experts to gather and come up with the best strategy possible. One that mitigates death and brings us and the economy that we each contribute to from the ashes. Not those ‘expert’ being drawn from Mr. Trumps appointed department heads, chosen in many cases based on the disdain for their departments functions or based on loyalty to Donald Trump. Nor from his family, whose privileged lifestyles and educations in no way qualify them for anything other than running a family business. No, Mr. Trump, leave things to the governors at this point. Governors run states. Governors are familiar with terms like public policy, as well as understanding the economic realities. Yes, they make mistakes – but rarely do they survive them in the next election. Several blocks of governors are working on such plans that will be worth following. Other states will follow – even the poorly run states will hopefully look into the light and follow. I suspect that most governors – even those that have made poor decisions so far such as Florida’s Governor DeSantis allowing the state to remain open for spring break season actually have Trump’s best interests at heart over the state he runs. And I find it hard to believe that at least some lessons have been learned.
So… to the governors – think of your people. That includes their businesses and livelihoods. Look at the science, and the economic future. Work with states around you. Carry on – and ignore the distractions.
To the Congress. Show some courage. Do the right thing.
Lastly to Donald Trump. Stop with the belligerent shape shifting. Back off the selfishness and bullying. Help the nation heal instead of poisoning it. Recognize facts – the real kind. Like that the steps taken now will determine the future. That no man single-handedly posses the knowledge or ‘gut instincts’ to see this through. This time it matters. Let the true experts lead.