So…Donald Trump is a wartime President. I can see him, like James Madison, fleeing the White House just before the British burned it to the ground in the War of 1812. Or, maybe like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, risking his entire political career to help save Britain from falling to the Nazis and then successfully fighting a war against both Germany and Japan. Come on, you just know that Trump would have been just like the Charles Lindbergh character in HBO’s ultra-scary The Plot Against America. Trump would have sucked up to Hitler (“a strong leader”), turned his back on England and the European Jews, and then crowed about how he kept America out of “somebody else’s war.”
My favorite story of a president during wartime involves Abraham Lincoln shortly after the fall of the Confederate capital of Richmond. It was April 4, 1865, so the war was still officially on. The Confederate troops that had been guarding the capital had evacuated the city and Jefferson Davis was in full flight mode. But it was still an incredibly unsafe place to be. Lincoln and his son, Tad (who was celebrating his 12th birthday), went down the James River, got off the boat and just walked through the streets of Richmond.
Freed slaves tried to bow down to him, but Lincoln insisted that they stand up and shake his hand. Seriously, can you imagine Donald Trump doing anything like that?
Lincoln was an actual badass, unlike Trump, who’s just an ass. Lincoln fought in a real war (the Black Hawk War in 1839), while Trump was a draft dodger. In the early days of the Civil War, Lincoln grew so impatient with his reluctant-to-fight generals, he said, “If (General George B.) McLellan is not using the Army, I should like to borrow it for a while…” Trump is just a blowhard who would be (and obviously is) terrified of any kind of an actual fight.
I have always been a news junkie, so when Trump started doing those daily crap-a-thons about the pandemic, I watched. I knew immediately that they would be mini-political propaganda rallies, but I sincerely hoped that he could, at least a little bit, rise to the occasion. This wasn’t a petty monetary beef with NATO (a beef he continuously misrepresents or simply doesn’t understand). It wasn’t a mutual pleasuring with some third-rate dictator who can’t get the time of day from real world leaders. This is a life-or-death situation with Americans dying by the thousands.
After he completely blew the initial response by first joking about the virus, then downplaying it, and always lying about it and himself, I told myself that I would still give him another shot at manning up. This was a beach ball being floated across the plate. All he had to do was say, “Hey, I messed up, but now I see how serious this is and I’m going to do everything I can to fight this.” He would have hit it out of the park.
Instead, he immediately reverted to Little Bitch mode. I knew it all along. I take no responsibility. Blame the Chinese. Blame the Europeans. Blame the Mexicans. But mostly, blame the Democrats. I’m No. 1 on Facebook. (He actually has half as many followers as Barack Obama.)
Being a cockeyed optimist, I spent all of 2017 expecting Trump voters to realize that they had conferred dangerous powers upon a seriously flawed human being. But that didn’t happen. He lied about almost EVERYTHING and they cheered. He copped to committing felonious sexual assault and they cheered. He sided with white supremacists and they cheered loudly.
In 2018, he started destroying the fabric of American government as though he were some drunk bastard trying to play speed Jenga. He lied to and stole from the American people and still two out of five cheered.
In 2019, they realized that their side had lost the midterm elections because too many people who didn’t look like them had voted, so they set about to deny citizens their right to vote. Anything to keep their Giant Tub of Goo in office.
It has become all too apparent that the average Trump voter is beyond help. They don’t care about America; they care about “their” America—white, vulgar and intentionally stupid. But I have a logic problem for those Trump voters who possess triple-digit IQs. It’s only for them. Trying to explain logic to the average Trump voter would like trying to explain the workings of the Large Hadron Collider to a baseball bat.
For the few who might understand, here we go. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, did Wyoming declare war, followed by Louisiana, Ohio and then Vermont? Or did the United States declare war? If we’re at war with the virus, then the entire country is at war. And the country’s leader needs to be leading, not dumping responsibilities (and lots of blame) on state governors who don’t sufficiently kiss his ass.
So what is it, Trump lovers who can actually read this? Is he a “wartime president” or is he a cowardly, self-serving shirker at the time of his country’s greatest need?
History is already guaranteed to declare him the worst president in the history of America. His current actions will certainly doom his petty soul to eternal damnation.
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2020.
Tom…….You remind me of a petulant child who hasn’t gotten their way.
Let’s agree on one thing…well maybe three. COVID-19 most likely resulted on poor practices in a Chinese lab. It’ got out. The Chinese lied about the the severity and the World Health Organization participated in that lie. The latter caught up some of the medical scientists in this country such as Dr. Fauci et al. Those three points are almost undeniable.
Trump’s ban in allowing Chinese to enter the US has proven (according to the scientific community) to have saved lives. He was called a racist and Xenophobic by Democrats for that ban. His management since that time has received high marks from many Governors throughout the US, to include California.
We realized there was a problem when a gaggle of folks in a Washington nursing home got sick and died. In the meantime Pelosi is telling folks to disregard and go to Chinatown. NYC Mayor DiBlasio is telling folks to sing and dance in their favorite pubs. The deaths in New York and New Jersey account for more that half of all the deaths in the US.
The media seizes on the ‘opportunity’ and goes berserk and this includes the AZ Star.
According to March 28, 2020 statistics, COVID-19 had infected 0.04% of the total population of the US. To put that into perspective, Switzerland reported 0.17%, Spain 0..16%, Italy, 0.15% and Germany was
0.07%. Over 50% of the deaths in the US are in NYC and New Jersey. Those stats tell me we got on this problem early and effectively, sans NY/NJ.
In my opinion, the biggest mistake we have made is the vast economic shut down of the US.
COVID-19 is a serious issue and needs to be dealt with appropriately. But it has nothing to do with your underlying hate for our President. You have ragged on him since day one and COVID-19 is just your latest play toy. And we should agree on that also.
How fitting that this author would blame the US President for a pandemic caused by a communist regime. He somehow misremembers that truth and media are the first casualties of communism.
No wonder they sing the praises of drug use here.
It is times like this when magical thinking gets real — and dangerous.
In the face of an enemy invisible to the naked eye, and contrary to all we know and in spite of all we do not known, magical “thinkers” will believe that the right people will survive this test of nature because of their inherent rightness.
That is why some people cannot grasp that blaming politics is useless during this calamity. Death, War, Famine and Pestilence do not have political affiliations — although some GOP representatives have been doing yeoman’s work suggesting that a certain number of deaths are acceptable if it saves the economy. Of course, no one is willing to give an exact number, but we assume they do not include themselves as part of that acceptable number — such heroes.
To a certain degree, those that blame politics are correct in so far as politicians have left the preparations for an event like this to others while they focused their attention and activities on things with a better return on investment in political capital.
Preparing for and keeping the public safe during natural and man-made disasters has never been humanities forte, which is interesting considering how much time and energy is spent on war — something that is totally within our control.
Sure, we have FEMA and the Red Cross, but just ask the victims of Hurricane Katrina how well the politicians did. Remember, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
Obviously, we didn’t learn the lesson and this time because of the nature of this pandemic we need to brace ourselves for further tribulations at the hands of inept politicians who are completely out of their depth and lacking the intellect or will to let the professionals take the helm.
Instead, we are seeing the formation of various sized ad hoc groups of politically appointed dilettantes tasked with problems that they totally lack the life experience, let alone the training and skills, necessary to successfully navigate this crisis.
And here is where the magical thinkers will do the most damage. Sure, they may go through the motions of working to resolve the problems and issues, but when it gets right down to it, they “know” that everything will happen as it should and that the right-thinking people will make it.
Which leaves the rest of us with a choice — do you believe in magic?
Tom, if these first two posts represent the Trump voters to whom you refer, then I have to agree with your assessment.
I’m sure Tom Danehy and I would view Trump in much the same way. Trump is patently the worst president in the history of this country, although he has some stiff competition for that title (Richard Nixon comes to mind).
Here’s something a friend sent me with a Facebook message that I think aptly catches the president at this time of a national emergency:
“Donald Trump washes his hands every day.
He washes them of responsibility, honor, decency, truth, righteousness, courage, dignity, morals, common sense, reason, intelligence, compassion, empathy, generosity, leadership, love, hope, progress, kindness, patriotism, & humbleness.”
Danehy is a mentally ill, bolshevik terrorist. Get some help, dude.
JCC,
At least Richard Nixon eventually accepted responsibility for his actions and elected to resign rather than face the disgrace of an impeachment and avoid the harm it would cause the nation at a difficult time in its history.
The current occupant of the Oval Office was in fact impeached and continues to carry on as if impeachment were an errant cow on the tracks in front of his speeding crazy train full of hyperbole and hubris, as he heads full throttle toward the terminus of the 2020 Election regardless of peoples’ lives or the nation’s welfare.
“The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use — of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.” — Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968)
Looking at some of these replies, and the historical failures of Tucson and Pima County all come into focus.
Donald T:
Just as the real tRump does, you’re deflecting your Russian love onto others.
You’re such an ass, exactly like the actual dickhead you pathetically steal a name from.
tRump supporters are Putin supporters. This is a fact!
Reply to Donald T. post above.
“Trump’s ban in allowing Chinese to enter the US” came late, and was a point source ban on flights originating in particular PRC (People’s Republic of China) airports, and not from neighboring countries, and also not from Europe where many Chinese citizens had traveled to and from, including Wuhan. And the ban excepted a number of European countries, with citizens who had traveled to and from the PRC, including Wuhan. This abysmal discrepancy in safety measures drove the charges of racism; those charges of racism may be inappropriate, as could be coming from incompetent posing and not from any racial animosity.
Listening to the propaganda both Fox and the liberal media spew doesn’t make you a news junkie Tom, it makes you a sheep or a maybe a lemming. Try your own critical thinking rather than repeating the same crap of Rachel and the many many many others.
Critical thinking? These are college graduates. They don’t need to any critical thinking, They have been told what to think. So they think it. Job one? Hatred of everything their professors hated.
Nice piece on Possum Face,but I would like you to add to the “war time president”B.S.
that trump sees himself as with this thought for your creative mind to play with:
Remember Michael Dukaus and his Tank photo that pretty much ended his run for
the presidency?Well where can you go with that photo with trump’s face under the
helmet………….?
edu’ed idiots,
well there is that! speaking of non critical thinking, lets use our american saint Lincoln, to prove how flawed our current unprogressive devil really is, who could deny how great one is and how inept the other.
More out of context, manipulative misinformation. Anyone who has read thoughtful history of that time knows Lincoln was himself flawed and some of his actions were as well. The important thing was he got it done, under his watch, despite the constant blithering of his detractors..
Whatever T” has done, it is too little, too late. Sure, he inherited a starved Public Health system that had not been funded since forever – leading to fewer hospitals that could treat people, lack of US made PPE, and, earlier, saline bags (only from Puerto Rico). However, for the rest of his administration, attacks on healthcare for people who cannot afford it, his cohorts in states preventing people from filing for unemployment (ie. Florida where applications go to ether), on and on.