Facts And Opinions
By
Leonard Zwelling
The race for the White House is well on its way with the first GOP debate occurring Wednesday, August 23. Of course, it took place without the most important Republican participating. Mr. Trump, the current leader in all polls, had his own private interview with Tucker Carlson and then headed to Atlanta to be arrested, fingerprinted, have his mug shot, and be released on a $200,000 bond. For those keeping score at home, this is Mr. Trump’s fourth arrest and he has been indicted 91 times in four jurisdictions. That’s quite a record for someone who wants to be the leader of the free world. And it is frankly amazing that his followers continue to be so loyal, but they do not believe he did anything wrong.
But I am not really interested in a lengthy discussion about Donald Trump or Joe Biden, his likely opponent. Neither of these men should be running for President for a host of reasons from age (both too old), integrity (both have none), and vision (neither has much).
What I have found so fascinating, is the interviews with the diehard Trump supporters who, despite the 91 indictments are absolutely sure Mr. Trump has done nothing wrong and that he is being framed for political purposes. Furthermore, I have friends who continue to believe that Mr. Trump won the last election and nothing and no one can convince them otherwise. And these are smart people. How can that be?
That’s what I am trying to figure out, but I believe that it is because we as a country have lost the ability to differentiate fact from opinion or, for that matter, fact from fiction. At a time of more and more news coverage, we seem to be getting farther and farther from a consensus on what actually happened. It’s as if all facts are malleable and everyone is entitled to the facts he or she chooses to believe.
Nothing else can explain why reasonable, intelligent people (and I include Trump’s co-conspirators in Georgia) continue to deny that Joe Biden won (by about 7 million votes) and refuse to believe otherwise until they themselves have counted every ballot. What this does is undermine the faith of the country in the electoral process and if that occurs, the grand experiment that is America will not see its 250th birthday. And this is all a choice by people who simply cannot abide by the fact that they lost and that their way of thinking is not shared by the majority of the country. In fact, it’s worse than that. Their belief system is hurting the country. If we cannot trust our courts, our election process, and our leaders to do their jobs (e.g., the House which is constantly investigating anyone who indicts Trump), there is little chance that there can be one America.
Dr. Pisters is fond of saying that there is “one MD Anderson” even though there isn’t. Now, in the past or in the future. Like it or not, there is the faculty and then there is everyone else. Without the faculty, there is no MD Anderson. You can’t say the same for the clerical staff. Now could the whole of MD Anderson pull in one direction? Of course, it can because it has, but not right now. There is too much space between the leadership at the institutional, divisional, and departmental levels and the rank-and file faculty and staff.
The same is true in America. There seems to be one set of rules for the elite and another set for everyone else and the Wokes and the MAGAs are at war. As the editorial notes, the GOP debate solved none of this. A healing candidate has not emerged and probably can’t beat Trump any way.
I believe that when it comes to the election of 2020, the American people were presented with the fact that Joe Biden won. Every legal challenge to that in court was shot down. Why are we still fighting over the last election when we are approaching the next one and why are we doing that approaching with these two guys in the lead?
Unlike MD Anderson, there is nothing innate in the make-up of the country that suggests the elite have to run the place. Yet, they do.
Somewhere there must be a man or woman capable of healing the country’s wounds and getting us to pull in one direction. I just don’t know where he or she is. And many who might be that person (several GOP governors) are sitting this one out. Perhaps, that’s the key. We all just need to be patient and let Biden and Trump have their last hurrahs. This just may be the process.
Dr. Zwelling’s new novel, Conflict of Interest: Money Drives Medicine and People Die is available at:
barnesandnoble.com,
on amazon if you search using the title and subtitle,
and
directly from the publisher Dorrance at: https://bookstore.dorrancepublishing.com/conflict-of-interest-money-drives-medicine-and-people-die-pb/m
