Outrage. If one has the outlet to express revulsion—in print, in bytes, on the airwaves—it is only a matter of time before the outrageous hits the level of required reaction.
For months I have mostly ignored Donald Trump’s assault on the integrity of the 2020 election. Even the harrowingly vivid depictions Tuesday by Capitol and Washington Metro policemen of their heroism under assault from Trump’s delusional and deluded supporters on January 6 would not have provoked me into writing a screed. Their testimony, after all, was mostly already known. Videos of the assault have been telecast multiple times.
But the inept egomaniac mostly responsible for the deaths of more than 600,000 Americans, the illnesses of tens of millions, the economic gloom of the pandemic, now has the temerity to advocate against mask wearing that could save countless lives and suffering from the COVID-19 Delta variant.
“Don’t surrender to COVID. Don’t go back!,” said Trump Tuesday. “Trump urged people not to follow the updated CDC recommendation urging vaccinated people to go back to masking up indoors in high infection rate areas,” DailyMail.com reported.
Trump’s pseudo science is again endangering lives. Paradoxically, it probably will disproportionally hurt his most fervent partisans as they, residing in Red states where the Delta variant is rapidly spreading, generally are anti-mask and anti-vaxxers.
Not all of Trump’s minions are in thrall of his mystique. “Trump’s former surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, is supporting a return to universal mask wearing regardless of vaccination status,” Newsweek reported.
But Republican politicians remain steadfast in their fawning allegiance to the ex-would-be-despot-in-chief.
When the emperor has no clothes on, how do supplicants explain away the reality. It would be interesting to have his toadies answer on the record these questions:
*What would you say to anyone who believes Donald Trump will be “reinstated” as president in August?
*How would you characterize the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021?
*Is Joe Biden the legitimately elected president of the United States?
*How do you explain specific federal regulations that restricted blacks and other minorities, even if they were military veterans, from equal access to federal housing programs?
Of course, there are more questions that could be asked, but these would suffice in revealing the extent to which Republicans understand and adhere to the Constitution and are familiar with laws and regulations that systemically kept minorities as second class citizens.
The most damning revelation in books about Trump’s last days in the White House is not that he praised Hitler. The most damning thing is that his legion of followers remains loyal.
Perhaps it can be explained away by their ignorance to reality. The media they consume, if any, either doesn’t report it or dismisses its authenticity. Many GOP congressmen and senators did not watch the hearing Tuesday on the January 6 insurrection.
They have selective memory. One congressman, Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, has downplayed the riotous intent of the invaders of the Capitol even though he was pictured manning the House floor door barricade to prevent their entry. Watch how he dissembled his way through an interrogation by Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland (https://www.youtube.com/embed/8aJ5u-xurmw).
That clip may explain why masses by the millions stick with Trump. Though politicians, especially those in Washington and in governorships across America, should be among our most informed citizens, they ignore facts or misrepresent them.
Perhaps they do know the truth. The horror is they simply choose to ignore truth as it would interfere with their goal of retaining power over anyone who is not a Trump-true-believer or who may be Black, Hispanic, Native American, Arabic or Asian.
If you’re an even mildly informed person you are well aware of numerous examples of erroneous and dangerous Trumpian thought. I won’t bore you with enumerating them.
But I recently was forwarded a fascinating factoid that helps elucidate the sorry state our country is in, a condition that fails to grace academic or professional achievement among government employees in favor of practicing what Roman caesars understood—a key to controlling the masses was larding on them an abundance of bread and circus.
It is appalling that in 26 states the highest paid government employee is the coach of the state university football team! Basketball coaches earn the top dollar in 12 states. In Minnesota the coaches of those sports share the distinction. Hockey coach is supreme in New Hampshire. Academic or medical professionals are the highest paid in just 10 states.
To not mask has become a rallying cry for Trumpsters. The reality is no one likes wearing a mask. But rather than suppressing individual freedoms, as the anti-maskers contend, wearing a mask embellishes one’s freedom by allowing people to mingle with reduced anxiety of transmitting or receiving the dangerous Delta variant.
It would seem to be an easy concept to grasp. Too bad it isn’t.