NOW THAT the Covid-19 epidemic is withering and waning––yup, it’s almost yesterday’s news, suitable for lining the bird cage––we can all safely and happily return to our favorite public activities, such as restaurant dining and bar hopping, NASCAR races and indoor flea-markets, and of course, those wonderful political rallies in support of the greatest…
Huh? What’s that you say?….Nah, that can’t be right. You’ve been listening to that liberal media, you have. Our Mr. Trump told us this virus would magically disappear, and he isn’t wearing one of those silly face masks…..What? Really? Oh, well, um, shuffle feet, scratch nose…Did you see he passed a test where he correctly identified an elephant? Man, that guy is a genius.
Heavy sigh. Deep breath.
Seriously.
I have lost all patience with Trump supporters, along with all sympathy and understanding. I’m at rock bottom, I feel I have no arguments remaining to sway these people, and I see no means to reconcile that we are citizens of the same country, let alone time-stream and planet. My wife thinks this is a poor and unhelpful attitude, that we need to engage with these folks—who make up approximately 40% of the electorate of the country, according to various polls. I see no path to even the most basic of rapport and respectful communication, let alone progress. But I’ll keep trying anyway.
Let us consider the rally staged by Mr. Trump last month in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Throughout June, the epidemic was raging through the flat and drawly state of Oklahoma as fast, if not faster, than it was raging elsewhere. Despite lawsuits and other complaints, and the governor’s attempt to switch to an outdoor venue, the rally at the basketball arena was on. Local officials tried to separate participants with empty seats, only to have campaign staffers remove the “Do Not Sit Here, Please” stickers––presumably to make the event louder and present better on television.
The main story was that the event attracted merely 6,200 souls, instead of the millions or zillions that had been predicted. However, also dutifully reported in the following weeks were the Covid infections among various celebrities at the event (Herman Cain, remember him!? And the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr!) plus a spike in hospitalizations in the region, with the term “spike” being a clinical and very polite term meaning, in this case, “A lot of people got VERY SICK! Many of them DIED!”
To repeat, Donald Trump staged and promoted a political rally for his own benefit in the middle of a pandemic.
How can anyone in the country, let alone in Oklahoma, want another four years of this man and this kind of leadership? Who could possibly, POSSIBLY, even CONCEIVABLY endorse a guy who not just has been lackadaisical and disorganized and contradictory in fighting a microscopic yet deadly enemy, but whose actions are actually accelerating its spread among his most enthusiastic supporters, and then onto the rest of us?
Can you imagine a pair of Trump supporters knocking on your door, wearing those cheap red hats and no face masks, and they’ve got a bit of a cough and a very slight fever but they feel fine, really, and if you give them the chance they’ll argue for their candidate because…..why? Because he’s pro life?
We need to keep the pressure up, we need to keep campaigning for the savior of our public lives (his name is Joe Biden) and keep lambasting and calling out and uniting against the incompetent and self-deluded boob who somehow thinks he is entitled and that civilization depends on him continuing his rein of deception, insults, and general dumb-ass decisions in favor of himself and his friends, and against his enemies, the latter of which is an ever expanding and expansive list that already includes, by many surveys and a brief calculation or two, a majority of the American people.