NOTHING LEARNED

 

A brush with death can change a person.  A brush with death caused by something that you've actively ignored can really change a person.  Except, that is, for our president.  Donald Trump's reaction to his recent covid scare has been a return to displaying all the negative behaviors that he had before he fell ill, all of which helped  put the country at the top of the list world wide for the highest number of covid cases and deaths.

Even before he left the hospital, Trump was downplaying his condition.  In one of the oddest moments in presidential history, he got into his official presidential vehicle and waved to supporters outside the hospital he was in.  While this was a typical display of  macho toughness from him, it also showed a complete disregard for his driver and the security agent in the vehicle with him, who were forced to be in close quarters with a known contagious person just so he could get his silly little photo op.

And the foolish behavior from the president didn't end there; one of the first things he did after being discharged from the hospital was to dramatically walk up the steps of the capitol dome and tear off his mask, acting like a septuagenarian Superman. And his tweets were absurd: "Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life." He said, ignoring the fact that over two hundred thousand Americans had died from the virus.  He also added that "We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge."  Not only is this yet another absurd boast from him, but it downplays the reality of  the nature of his medical care.  As president, Trump is, of course, given the best possible medical treatment from an army of doctors.  The vast majority of Americans could never get the same kind of treatment that he received.  For him to hold himself up as some sort of macho, coronavirus beating tough guy is an insult to those who have died, implying that they were just too weak to survive.  As always, Trump has zero compassion for anyone but himself in everything he does, even when recovering from an illness.

This all gets even more appalling when one considers that it isn't just the president himself that has been infected, but also many of the people around him: so far fourteen people, including First Lady Melania Trump,  Senior Advisor Stephen Miller, and Aide to the President Hope Hicks, along with three Republican Senators.  And yet he still steams ahead with downplaying the virus, like a pandemic hitting the White House and Congress is somehow nothing to worry about.  (And really, is there any greater indicator of what a psychopath our president is than the fact that his own wife's infection seems to have stirred no sense of compassion in him?).  Yes, sadly, Trump will always be Trump, never admitting to any mistake or course correcting in any way.  From day one he has downplayed the danger of this pandemic, and months later, with millions of Americans infected and hundreds of thousands dead, he still chooses to do so.  All we can do as a country is vote him out in such large numbers that he and his party won't be able to steal the election.  Expecting him to ever do the right thing regarding this pandemic is fruitless.