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Call COVID-19 a Buckaroo!!
By John Burl Smith
Today is September 5, 2020; America is just short of 60 days, before making one of the most important decisions in recent times, maybe since Civil War. The tension and terror Donald Trump will force all Americans to endure, before his threatened nightmare of a Donald Trump dictatorship ends. The imagining would be hilarious and a comedy of errors had not his performance over the last 3 and a half years yielded such disastrous and deadly consequences for Americans.
Now that the political conventions are history all that is left is to weigh Trump’s performance, as an incumbent president, and rate whether his “job” leaves him wanting. So, in that regard there is only one question on the ballot, “How did Trump do in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic?” COVID-19 is the only thing or issue that Donald Trump owns completely. It is the only event or set of circumstances that occurred, developed and continues unabated, reaping havoc on Americans, since it invaded America’s shores in January 2020.
COVID-19’s invasion has shown Donald Trump to be a small, weak, hard put and desperate man. The nation has watched Trump frail and rail against it, as though words would drive such a ferocious and tenacious enemy from America’s shores. Donald Trump—the war president—greatest weapon against this grizzly monster—COVID-19—has been “lies.” Back in March, his “lies” began, “Fifteen people coming in from China, in a few days it will be down to zero,” or something to that effect. While the coronavirus was ravishing and devastating New York City, completely overrunning it and filling almost everywhere with bodies, Trump said, “It is going to disappear. One day it will magically go away!!!”
With that prediction failing to miraculously transpire, Trump tried another “lip-de-flip, hoping to give the impression, he was storming ashore in Normandy on D-Day, in a ferrous charge, like Gen. Eisenhower. Trump took to the rose garden as though mounting a full frontal attack on COVID-19, but rolled out only a “dog and pony show.” Not fazed by Trump’s infantile rants, COVID-19 bomb rushed Trump’s podium, disguised as news reporters and forced Trump to retreat, offering only tweets to justify his long distance reporting, like a foreign correspondent at the frontline. Against coronavirus’ full invasion, America had no home guard to stop the most deadly enemy, at its shores, it has ever encountered, whether on its own soil or abroad.
This is very hard for some Americans to admit, but everyone should remember, in his hatred and determination to destroy or wipe out anything that had to do with President Barak H. Obama. Donald Trump closed down the pandemic office established by Pres. Obama and VP Joe Biden. Trump, before the coronavirus invasion, held a barn fire on the White House lawn to burn the pandemic preparedness playbook Pres. Obama left for the next president. Trump followed up, further isolating and weakening the forward warning system Pres. Obama established for the US with international health organizations and groups studying that monitored possible future pandemic outbreaks. Trump put America on an island onto itself, with his isolationist ideas about health. Donald Trump left America vulnerable, and it is suffering from his blind hatred and disregard for not only former President Obama, but science and medical knowledge as well.
With the 2020 election bearing down on his weak and fear filled retreat from the “rose garden,” Trump, in the face of COVID-19, waved a white flag. Only concerned with saving his reelection chances, much like his refusal to challenge Putin’s bounty on American soldiers, Trump capitulated before firing. a single shot. America’s “war president,” desperate to save his tanking economy, allowed COVID-19 to feast on Americans, like generous servings of Peking duck. Trump defied advice and warnings from scientists and doctors—that wearing masks, keep social distance, sheltering in place and remain closed down—which would slow the coronavirus spread, Trump cried and screamed helplessly and hopelessly to “reopened open the economy!!!” Fretting over sagging poll numbers, Trump’s “hail Mary” was a vaccine by the end of the year?
Now we—Americans—are faced with a decision no Americans ever dreamed and our position now is much like Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s, preparing to give his Gettysburg Address, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” Americans today are being called upon to reaffirm Pres. Lincoln’s charge from November 19, 1863.
Although Trump is claiming the protests, burning, destruction and even deaths, during Black Lives Matter protests, are threatening America’s suburbs, but the resulting—4 deaths—does not compare to the 200,000 coronavirus victims, Trump refuses to even acknowledge. Prompted by desperation, Trump is trying and create conditions, as slave owners who refuse to end slavery, and declared war 157 years ago, on “today’s America.” But, like a new recruit on the line for the first time, Donald Trump’s weak kneed response is to declare and stoke fears of a second civil war, simply to avoid fighting COVID-19, the real enemy among us.
There is no greater threat facing America than COVID-19 and the demand to defeat it. Along with the question regarding Trump fitness, as president, is the addendum for each voter, “Are you willing to accept the deaths of at least a million Americans, with Trump’s election and waiting for his prediction “COVID-19 will just go away, one day it will magically disappear” to prove true? Americans have another option, other than waiting for Trump’s “lies” to come true. For Americans who love their freedom, your vote for the one and only patriot standing between Donald Trump and the scenario I’ve presented is Joe Biden.
Joe may not have been your choice starting out this election cycle, but he is what America has for a vindicator in this battle against the deadliest enemy America has ever faced. To wit, COVID-19 has made the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, in terms of deaths (2,335) and economic dislocation, a blip on radar, while the coronavirus’ has continually dive bombed America, killing nearly 200,000 Americans, as “the war president” golfed it up every weekend. Trump’s total addiction of his duty to protect the American people has drawn only, “I take no responsibility,” so wait for a vaccine and take your chances.
Trump’s response is why Joe Biden is currently working to pull together scientists, doctors, health professional, medical technicians, educational personnel, governors and mayor, as a Coronavirus Pandemic Taskforce (CPT) to develop a creditable, reliable and accurate assessment of the real state of affairs Americans face, regarding COVID-19. Some may charge Joe Biden is engaging in a political stunt, he is not president, and Trump might win. Biden is wasting his time. But, Mr. Biden’s point is, what if he wins; then he will walk into the White House on January 20, facing the total chaos Donald Trump leaves behind. It will take Mr. Biden 6 months to separate the “lies” from what scientists and doctors actually know today. That will continue Trump’s strategy of hoping the problem will go away, rather than preparing to meet it head on.
Mr. Biden believes until America gets a handle on COVID-19, nothing else will fall in place. It is the coronavirus that has destroyed America’s economy, has over 50 million Americans out of work, and Trump has forced schools to reopen, when they are not ready and children and teachers are getting sick. Getting COVID-19 under control is something on which all Americans agree, and that is where Mr. Biden is starting.
Peaceful protests in a few cities across this huge nation need to be addressed true enough, but peaceful protesters have not killed one American, while COVID-19 has killed nearly 200,000 Americans. On balance, which is the greatest threat for Americans? Trump wants you to choose fear and hate.
Then there is Trump’s MEGA failure, not enacting the Defense Production Act (DPA). His failure, while saying, “I take no responsibility,” has been devastating to health care workers. They spent April and June struggling to get equipment and material needed to save lives, theirs and patients, even working at the risk of their lives. The DPA allows the federal government to develop testing kits and reeve up testing, so everyone who wants a test can get tested at government’s expense, while receiving results in a day. Frontline workers need PPEs, masks, face shields, gloves, respirator and ventilators; this equipment America should produce. Moreover, these are only a few items that were obtained from foreign nations because American companies do not make them.
Mr. Biden says he will remember the work and sacrifices of frontline workers, during his administration, because without their dedication and expertise, America may not have gotten up off it COVID-19 death bed, in places like New York City. But to the point about the DPA, America must manufacture such vital equipment so it never gets caught unprepared to fight such an enemy ever again. The DPA gives the President the authority to nationalize the fight against such enemies.
The President can mandate action and regulations needed to instruct citizens about proper behavior, which will support the entire citizenry, as well as command their cooperation, if need be, following federal government edits and guidelines. The DPA makes the President the last word and that responsibility is a heavy burden that the woman or man in the oval office must bear with humility and resolve. So I believe, Mr. Biden would say, the majority of Americans want him, as their new President, to concentrate on the enemy that is the greatest threat and on that, I believe all thinking Americans agree.
The next issue is Donald Trump himself; he is upside-down in his thinking. First of all, Trump is the incumbent, which has the posh, classy, fancy and even spiffy, if you will, backdrop of the White House from which to campaign, similar to Richard Nixon—the first law and order president—who made the Rose Garden strategy so powerful. Yet and still, the nation witnessed the President of the United States in Kenosha, Wis. prowling around in the burned out hulk of a business, with a man who is no longer the owner, only to get a photo opp. That performance and Trump’s strategy is mystifying, but it is reminiscent of his stroll across Lafayette Park, after gasing peaceful protesters for his “upside down” bible photo opp.
With the prospect of 300,000 American deaths by mid-2021, if not before, Trump has spent the last month stoking fears and calling for his rightwing militia to dominate the streets. He has repeatedly sent his far-right thugs to threaten communities trying to show his power or displeasure. Identical to Ann Arbor, Michigan when he used his thugs to support “reopen,” by threatening the Governor. Trump’s actions at that point, more than anything, was gasoline on COVID-19, his MAGA events have become “super spreaders,” which fueled the coronavirus resurgence into the full blown pandemic, it has become. Now, after being chased out of the White House by coronavirus, Trump is running around the country blaming Joe Biden for the mess he made, to support his change from being “the war president” to “I am the law and order president.” Hiding out on golf courses, Trump has become the first President to be cowed by an enemy, like COVID-19, then get run out of his own town.
COVID-19 has revealed to America the yellow stripe that runs down Trump’s back, because the coronavirus has nailed Trump’s hide to the barn door and is using it for target practice. COVID-19 is riding rough shared cross America, like a buckaroo, with Donald Trump for it nag!!! I close on what Joe Biden conveyed to me when I asked “Why should I join your campaign?”
“Because I’m fighting for you; your name is not on the ballot, so the only chance you have of getting anything, is that I beat Donald Trump. As fellow Americans, we are fighting a man that has failed so miserably at the job of President; I have undertaken this campaign to address that challenge, not because of a desire, deep in my heart, to be President. I would love to have continued enjoying life with Jill and my grandchildren, but with a mad man like Donald Trump in the White House and on the loose, with the power of government at his disposal, and we are seeing what that means now; some threats only a few see and that challenge must be answered by those whose eyes are open. Most assuredly, America is experiencing Trump’s fallout; his impact has been like a nuclear missile hitting America.
Considering all that, then throw in, I’m looking at 80 years old, and in that mindset, no 80 year old man, in his right mind, or unless, he is still trapped in his twenty-something dream he could never let go, would volunteer to take on the madness I knew was waiting, if I took on the duty of at least trying to save America from the threat, I believed Donald Trump reflected, after 2018. Besides, everyone thought he was unbeatable!!!
The 2018 elections showed that young progressive democrats had decided to fight Donald Trump over America, and I realized they would need real up from the other side and I believed in the end I could unite the party, after 2016. Here’s the thing, if someone didn’t stop Donald Trump, those who truly love America and have given their all, in military service, the diplomatic crop, front line workers, federal and state government employees and including everyday citizens, would no longer enjoy and feel free in this wonder land we celebrate and renew our commitment and vow to uphold the Constitution with our vote, would lose all of that. This is the reason my name is on the ballot for November 3rd to be President of the United State of American.”
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