The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent mitigating efforts have led to depression, isolation, economic calamity, and most of all, the death of loved ones. The long term effects should not be underestimated nor ignored.
While the recent surge experienced by the United States of COVID-19 has exacerbated these effects, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Nonetheless, the U.S. has squandered a unique opportunity.
As the United States was going through the pandemic, there were assurances, mostly by governors, that the nation would get through this. Some governors were aspirational in assuring their state that they would not only get through this but would come back better. Some such as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called upon his state to reimagine New York. President-elect Joe Biden used the theme “Build Back Better”during his victorious campaign.
The call to reimagine society was reassuring, hopeful and a powerful message during a time of confusion and uncertainty.
The saying of “don’t let a crisis be wasted” was the new paradigm.
Nonetheless, the nation got sidetracked from aspiration and devolved into what seemed to be confusion.
With the presidential election gearing up, COVID-19 was politicized into two camps. One side of the political spectrum recognized the pandemic’s severity and began implementing strategies to mitigate the virus. The other side tried to downplay the seriousness of the virus not from a scientific or philosophical perspective but in fear of being negatively tweeted about by the current President.
There is no doubt that some of the mitigating actions were haphazard, but without a national strategy and competent leadership, that was to be expected.
As infections and deaths increased, the response was a constant refrain of “this would soon disappear”. Eventually, that morphed into “we are turning the corner” As absurd as it may sound, the President even stated, “If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at.” This statement which bordered on lunacy defined how Covid-19 was being responded to. Newly appointed White House advisor Dr. Scott Atlas surpassed this. Atlas, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Hoover Institute, promoted a herd immunity strategy, which most epidemiologists said would lead to millions of additional deaths.
Masks recommended by the CDC were ridiculed by the President and became a political statement of defiance by supplicants on the right.
Michigan Governor Gretchen, who had ordered shutdowns, became the target of a kidnapping plot, which some say was motivated by Trump’s tweet criticizing the Governor and telling the people of Michigan to liberate their state. At a subsequent campaign rally in Michigan, Trump supporters began chanting lock her up. This chant was joined in by none other than the President himself.
With the pandemic’s politicization, a presidential response bordering on the absurd, and conflicting messages about the pandemic, the nation was confused and began to take positions according to their political affiliation. Unfortunately those who listened to the President were wrong.
When President Trump contracted COVID-19 and was transported to Walter Reed hospital for treatment, some thought he would finally take it seriously. Instead after a few days the President decided to take a joy ride to wave to his supporters. This was followed by returning to the White House via helicopter and adopting a Mussolini like pose on the White House balcony as he saluted the helicopter that brought him back.
Aspirations turned into deeper divisions. Even as deaths rose, the President at a campaign rally accused the medical profession of profiting from Covid by saying “our doctors get more money if someone dies from Covid. You know that right? I mean our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say I’m sorry but everybody dies of Covid”
The opportunity presented itself to have a real discussion about closing the wealth gap. While the United States Congress passed the CARES act which provided a one-time grant of twelve hundred dollars to people earning less than $75,000, the less-discussed aspect of that legislation is the pass-through and provisions it as reported by ProPublica which “allows the ultra-wealthy to use paper losses to offset income that was taxed in previous years, when tax rates were higher than they are now, and get refunds based on those old, higher rates.” This benefited 43,000 families making one million dollars or more. It is this component of the CARES act that the recently passed HEROES act would revoke. Senator McConnell has refused to,take up this legislation which was passed by the House of Representatives.
Even as the pandemic rages, politicians including Senators Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler, Jim Imhofe, and Diane Feinstein sold off stock worth millions of dollars before the stock market sank because of news about coronavirus.
During this time of political obfuscation, presidential lies, Business Insider reported that during the Covid-19, billionaires increased their net worth by six hundred and thirty seven billion dollars. At the same time, forty million Americans filed for unemployment while thousands of businesses have closed permanently.
Since Trump lost his re-election bid, he has said virtually nothing about Covid while lying about the election being stolen from him. Nonetheless as Covid surges across the country, Trump supporters converged on Washington to protest the election results. Unemployment benefits and rent relief about to end while his supporters worry about Trump having a job.
Reimagining society is a neutral construct; it can be positive or negative. When the pandemic started the idea of reimagining society was seen as a positive possibility. Nonetheless, society may have been reimagined as a result of the pandemic and the subsequent national response. Seventy-two million Americans have been led down the primrose path of conspiracy theories and drank the political version of Jim Jones’ Flavor Aid.
The political system is being reimagined. Despite the fact that both Republicans and Democrats acknowledged the election was void of fraud, Trump supporters have been convinced to deny the legitimacy of the election.
The United States had the opportunity to show the world the value of free elections but in his humiliating defeat his unrelenting and unsubstantiated attempts to overturn the election has made the country a source of derision around the world.
In the President’s campaign to overturn an America election, former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Joe DiGenova said in regards to publicly saying that the former head of CSIS Chris Krebs who confirmed the election was devoid of fraud should be “taken outside at dawn and shot”
Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, went to Arizona to urge Republican officials to throw out people’s votes and hand the election to President Trump. Giuliani told them their “political career is worth losing if you can save the right to vote in America”
The current President of United States went on FOX News and intimated that the FBI and Justice Department conspired against him.
If that is not enough the current President created a so-called “Official Election Defense Fund” which thus far has raised over one hundred and seventy million dollars.
Even now there has been discussions to pardon his children and Rudy Giuliani.
This is occurring while he is allegedly walking around the White House muttering “I won I won I won”
GOP politicians will remain silent during this time of lunacy showing fealty in abject fear of a tweet.
At the same time the Trump administration wants to institute the use of gas and the firing squad as a form of execution as he seeks to expedite the execution of five prisoners prior to leaving office.
Perhaps society is already being reimagined but not for the better. Perhaps a large segment of the nation is being transformed into a paranoid cult of personality.
Some would look at this moment and wonder how a nation can be so powerful while being so stupid? The good news is that eighty million people used common sense and rejected his form of politics but whether Trump supporters will trust the system if their candidate doesn’t prevail is an open question. The opportunity presented itself for great change even though the pandemic has created political, economical, social, and health damage. Because of Trump and his cronies election officials are receiving death threats. Previously the nations top epidemiologist Anthony Fauci was receiving death threats because of Trump’s propensity to create chaos. America was warned that everything Trump touches dies. Even a Georgian election official held a press conference and warned that “someone is going to get killed” because of the President.
Society may not come back as it was but in a different form than imagined or desired.