A Haphazard President, a Befuddled ‘Contender’
TROUBLE
It is difficult to write of the mundane qualities of a political campaign during a national health crisis unknown in this America of our time.
Yes there was such a crisis in 1918 and America withstood it as we will again. But that was/is a part of our history. Those who lived through it are gone. Covid-19 is now.
It is taking a toll on tens of thousands of Americans who are already sick, who are gripped by fear of the unknown, by sincere concerns for millions out of work, by the withdrawal of people from each other, by the mysteries of how predictions of a world-wide virus-driven disease which would take the lives of millions is not the plot of a new movie or a TV series but is happening right now for real.
And while things political slide quietly into the background, politics is never far from this or any other moment.
Whether it is the politics of which corporations will receive government sought bailouts, which of those will pass the funds to employees, which will try to use that money to buy back their stock as many did with their corporate tax breaks two years ago; whether the political system can support direct cash payments to citizens even though precedent exists in then President George Bush’s successful effort to give away the Clinton-won budget surplus in just a matter of months after his election.
And yes, politics exists in the efforts of America’s haphazard President’s insistence on touting a drug to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis but never a corona virus despite the words of his respected medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci telling him and the World that these drugs have never successfully treated a corona virus. Now there is a run on those drugs as doctors use them to treat the virus and even prevent it…and patients with lupus and arthritis are concerned the drug might not be available to them while doctors across the country – desperate for a genuine measurable diagnosis for Covid-19 or a treatment for it – doctors need to measure and treat to feel capable of being doctors – and so there is a potential shortage…and more concern.
But people are trying – even though Dr. Deborah Birx, working as an advisor to the President but appointed by the Obama Administration as Ambassador at Large to the HIV-AIDS community effort – has had to use her considerable public speaking skills to pull back on her belief that millennials will lead the effort at public safety because they have been doing just the opposite with their behaviors on Spring break.
But in truth millennials have been doing much worse to the political scene – just ask Bernie.
THE CAMPAIGN
You know it is our personal belief that this President never believed he would become the Republican nominee, never believed he would defeat Hillary Clinton, never believed nor wanted to be President. In our view he ran for President to build the Trump name nationally so that he could find new development money in Russia, Saudi Arabia and among other international funders because his American bank – Deutsche Bank – told him they would no longer fund his projects.
But fate had other things in store.
Now we see him in fear mode. His personal belief is that one-term Presidents are remembered as failures. Now his desire for reelection is clearly and openly his one clear need. He does and says nothing to hide this need. He does not know how to control that need. It is everywhere.
As he scrambles to get out from under the crushing weight of a failing Stock Market, the short and late supply of equipment to deal with the virus and his concern that the longer it takes for a recovery the shorter his chances of reelection, we see trouble ahead for the country unless both political parties come together in Congress to provide the strength against him that has been missing.
Meanwhile, both Democratic candidates can sincerely be described as befuddled.
Here is Joe Biden, suddenly the front-runner with the media all but anointing him, pledging to name a woman as his Vice President choice. Nice, but now what? Does he select a woman of color sincerely believing in such a step after his eight years with Barack Obama while forgetting one of the reasons for a racist-spouting Trump is that a massive number of white working men could no longer stomach a man of color as its President; a man they believed brought in immigrants and seemed to ignore their fears about losing jobs in industries that no longer mattered because they had been replaced by technology.
Does Joe Biden recognize that the Democratic Party became the party of elites while forgetting about their typical supporters – working class America?
And while he stumbles around trying to work that out…what about Bernie Sanders? The media has counted him out and pushes him away. Bernie’s mistakes in never working to make his platform understandable to African-Americans cost him South Carolina in a big way.
But he like Dr. Blix seriously misunderstands millennials…underestimates their genuine interest in him or in America. He knows how many of them voted for Trump in 2016 in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. He predicted unprecedented turnouts in support of his revolutionary movement NOW and in fact their turnout has been less than the 2016 primaries…must less unprecedented.
And perhaps most importantly he thought that for the majority of Democrats change meant something deeply substantial…something lasti8ng and important to remake the belief system of the party – long gone since the Clinton triangulation or perhaps strangulation of any belief system.
But he has been wrong all along the line. It seems that for now most Democrats voting have wanted an end to Trump not to the systems that exist.
Now it is our hope that he remains in the race which has changed its face completely. Most of the primaries will take place right before the National Convention in July in Milwaukee. All of the planning is based on the virus and on the hope that we will have pushed it back and away by late Spring. If Sanders remains in the race he will deny Biden the delegates he needs to win before the Convention.
Those of us who respect the power of Trump on the stump believe that the Democratic Party needs a stronger candidate to match the strengths of a man who loves the limelight, the red light on cameras and the cheers of the crowd. With all that glowing, he shines. Joe Biden has never had that kind of charisma and now has even less.
Yes he has an Irish temper and can yell back but those of us who yell know that it is all about defense and not offense. And Trump is nothing if not offensive.
We are in troubled times. But this crisis involves all of us…and when all of us are involved we become stronger with the sum of our parts.
If the current crisis is over by November, the president will be self-postured as the nation’s heroic savior and win re-election handily. As Rahm Emanuel said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.”