The Republicans Spread The News And The Virus
By
Leonard Zwelling
It’s official. It’s not the Chinese virus any more. It’s the Republican virus. The news footage of the GOP elite getting together on the White House lawn to celebrate Amy Coney Barrett without masks or social distancing has revealed the source of what is starting to look like a super spreader event that included the president, the first lady, a few senators, the president of Notre Dame and Chris Christie. I am sure that subsequent days will reveal many others at the event (please make it Bill Barr who was hugging the newly positive Kelly Anne Conway) who will come down with a positive test result. This would be ironic if it wasn’t so sad and I fear that someone in that crowd will get truly ill and prove the need for the masks and distancing. I know there are people who do not believe in masks. Most of them are Republicans. Clearly the crowds that show up for Trump believe in neither masks nor social distancing. Well, the chickens have come home to roost. Don’t they always. It may be true. RBG must have won her first case before God and Trump came down with the bug. As Jim Carrey said on SNL, karma met science.
And what about Trump’s doctors? Why can’t they get a story out straight and coherently? If the president required a little oxygen because his blood oxygen saturation level dropped, that’s important. He’s a man in his 70’s who is obese. He has risk factors. The country needs to know and by the way the country would be more reassured if Vice President Pence stayed in Washington and did not race around the country going to more campaign events.
The fact that the GOP and the entire right wing of American politics has made light of the virus, masks and social distancing by holding their large campaign events and having the first family flout masks at the debate only makes it more clear that the president and the Senate Republicans have not handled the pandemic well. I believe that the president’s current illness has made this clear to one and all and thus I am ready to make my call about the election itself.
First, remember, millions of Americans have already voted and that number grows larger by the day.
Second, the president’s attempts to suppress mail-in voting will largely fail as that vote is more Democratic than Republican and those folks are going to vote.
Third, albeit true that the polls may not be accurate, after the debate, they have turned even more negative for Trump with a 14-point lead for Biden and Trump below 40%.
Believe it or not, I think that this is over. I think Mr. Biden will win and he will win easily enough for there not to be any court challenges by the GOP.
In 2016, the country had had it with politics as usual. Mr. Obama was largely a disappointment to those Reagan-Bush voters who gave him a chance in 2008 and 2012. Many of them really disliked Hillary Clinton and surely disliked the Democratic National Committee’s fixing of the nomination process and robbing Bernie Sanders of any chance of competing. Why the heck not give the reality TV star a chance? Well, he’s had his chance and he’s done poorly. His entire campaign came undone during the debate. Those who support him will continue to do so, but the undecided among the viewers have had enough of this nonsense of having a two-year-old-in-chief. No one is crazy about the idea of Joe Biden being president, but it’s a damned sight better than having four more years of Trump. The country cannot handle this level of disruption for another four years.
After the virus, after the economic unrest, after the racial discord, after the lockdowns, and after that debate, people want peace and quiet and the ability to get back to their lives. It may take a vaccine to do that and that may well be around the corner, but not before 2021.
Both parties need a purge to get back to normalcy. The Democrats need to leave the Squad behind them and say good-bye to Bernie Sanders. Democratic socialism is not right for America. This is not Europe. It simply won’t work. The GOP needs to get unTrumped and the leaders in the Republican Party of the House and Senate need to come back to their senses.
We tried the Trump experiment. It was a failure. Joe Biden may be a reasonable bridge to normalcy. Hopefully in 2024, both parties can put up candidates in the middle-of-the-road who differ on how to get the country back to normal but not that their goal should be getting the country back to normal. On that all agree.
Whoever set up that super spreader event on the White House lawn ought to have some serious psychiatric care. We need to get back to regular America. Soon.
And until then, wear your mask in public, keep your social distance, and wash your hands. It’s easy America. We can do this even if the Republicans can’t.
