We are a nation adrift.
Not only must Americans and their state and local governments struggle with excruciating, unparalleled choices, we must fight a White House campaign of disinformation, mayhem and deceit during a national crisis like no other.
Rather than rise to the occasion, or even attempt to, the pandemic crisis has fueled President Donald Trump’s worst instincts and behaviors. At a time when the nation is desperate for a cohesive, cogent strategy rooted in science and honesty, Trump has inflicted the absolute opposite on a staggered America.
The country suffers because state officials, including those in Colorado, depended on Trump and federal disease control agencies to do their jobs in preparing the country for what was clearly unfolding across the globe.
It didn’t happen.
As the virus spread throughout the entire country, there was initially no ability to test for it. Weeks later, testing deficiencies continue to be the chief complaint of disease control officials.
Stories this weekend by the New York Times and Association Press illustrated the numerous times Trump and his deficient team undermined the nation’s ability to limit the effects of the pandemic.
Trump’s own words reveal every day the clear and present danger he poses as president.
“We have it totally under control,” Trump said Jan. 22 on CNBC. “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
Even the few, remaining newspapers that previously turned a blind eye from Trump’s malfeasance have stepped up efforts to stem the damage he and his team wield daily.
The editorial board of the dependably conservative Wall Street Journal last week essentially told Trump to quit his daily TV reality show, chock-full of misinformation and focused on Trump’s famous brand of vindictive narcissism.
The president’s tweeted response was predictable.
“The Wall Street Journal always “forgets” to mention that the ratings for the White House Press Briefings are “through the roof” (Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale, according to @nytimes) & is only way for me to escape the Fake News & get my views across. WSJ is Fake News!”
The time to lament Trump’s gaffes, deceits and utter incompetence will come after he has left the White House next January. For now, the nation must navigate his treachery and attempt to chart a credible course through the pandemic disaster in spite of him.
Our only hope comes from autonomous state agencies and officials, empowered local governments and a Congress willing to shun Trump’s ineptitude and base behavior.
Despite a handful of misguided outliers, the majority of state governments have issued stay-at-home orders. Governors, and state and local public health officials, have generally relied on the science behind controlling a deadly pandemic. They’ve made the hard and unpopular decisions in a nearly Hail Mary move to save lives. Clearly, a working U.S. economy and mass-isolation cannot coexist. Clearly, we have no choice.
While it’s nearly impossible to rank or even accurately catalogue Trump’s delinquency in how he’s mishandled the pandemic crisis, one of his recent atrocities demands immediate rebuke from all the nation’s governors and Congress.
Trump last week began using his position as president to grant pandemic-crisis public health favors to his political allies.
Republicans who’ve defended Trump, such as Colorado GOP Sen. Cory Gardner, were recently publicly bestowed medical supplies and equipment to their states.
“Will be immediately sending 100 Ventilators to Colorado at the request of Senator Gardner!” Trump wrote last week in a tweet.
Colorado officials had requested 10,000 ventilators almost a month ago from the Trump administration. Our state is just one of a growing number of those with mushrooming COVID-19 cases pleading for equipment as hospitals approach overload.
Trump’s shameless political-spoils approach to managing life-and-death requests during a national disaster rises to a new level of despicable behavior, even for Trump.
Every member of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, must condemn Trump’s quid-pro-quo allotment of life-saving equipment. That reproach must especially include Gardner and other Trump favorites.
There is no denying Gardner’s voting record of repeatedly undermining Colorado values. That and Gardner’s unnerving sycophant behavior these last few years have doomed his chances for being re-elected as the moderate Republican he falsely claims to be. We appeal to any shred of integrity Gardner retains to call out Trump’s repugnant scam and at least finish his Senate tenure on a note of decency and self-respect.
The more Colorado, as a community, rises to selflessness and civility in a crisis as daunting as this, the easier it will be to move beyond it. In this one important exercise, Gardner, and other Republicans like him, can still lead the way.