Answering the Kennedys’ Call
Critics of the Trump administration and its Republican Party enablers have it exactly backward when they say the federal government isn’t leading the effort to control the novel coronavirus pandemic. They have in fact been actively opposing any measures that would control the pandemic and protect the health and welfare of most Americans.
President Trump and his enablers are suing in the Supreme Court to overturn Obamacare that has insured 30 million Americans, for starters. Another 5 million have no coverage because of their lost jobs.
They are also actively opposing a national response by attacking and undermining the administration’s own scientific experts in order to sow confusion and doubt among the public. And just as alarming, they are now demanding the opening of public schools without mandating national guidelines to protect its students.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed as much at yesterday’s press briefing, when he said, “The federal government is committing gross negligence.”
That is why we now have the highest COVID-19 infection and death rates in the world. And those most affected are immigrants and minority populations in the ‘essential’ occupations who are most exposed to infection, rather than Republicans’ white nationalist supporters.
“It’s politically inconvenient in an election year, so he denies it,” said Cuomo. “Except you are jeopardizing public health and losing lives by your denial and political agenda.”
And now thirty-eight U.S. states have seen a rise in cases in the last 14 days, I quoted MarketWatch’s Jeffrey Bartash saying yesterday: “Harvard Global Health Institute researchers have developed a national tracker to trace the severity of the outbreak on a state-by-state basis, and it’s flashing red for red states like Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Georgia.”
Arne Duncan, Obama’s former Education Secretary, probably said it best regarding the opening of schools:
“What we obviously need to do to make our schools safe is to make our communities safer,” he says. “It's actually [Trump’s] tremendous lack of leadership, just horrific leadership over the past several months, that's the only reason why whether or not we can go back to school safely in the fall is in question now.”I maintain it’s worse than that. Dr. Lance Dodes, a retired assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School said in a recent Salon interview about Trump’s need to speak in front of his followers without regard to their safety:
“Trump is able to appear more in touch with reality when he is being worshiped. Indeed, when his primitive needs are not being challenged, he can look like a normal person — it’s what has made him a successful con man. When he is challenged, however, his cruelty, sadism, paranoia, lack of conscience, incitement to violence and active pursuit of policies that kill people become obvious. These traits are properly described as “evil.” In professional terms, they mean he is a psychopath.”There should be no question where the national leadership of America is leading the majority of Americans. It is leading to the destruction of our health and well-being. Enough is enough.
Harlan Green © 2020
Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen
No comments:
Post a Comment