It's the leadership, stupid
As we pass the dubious distinction of marking 100,000 deaths attributable to COVID-19, one has to wonder why the United States of America has worst record in the world among countries with populations of more than a few million for the per capita incidence of the disease. We knew it was coming. One only had to look how it jumped to Iran from China and then Italy. The global spread was obvious and ominous.
We now know that precious weeks were lost in mobilizing to meet the invading virus. First it was denial that a threat existed. That is, denial in the Oval Office. And when it was recognized as a global pandemic, the weapons with which to fight were in insufficient supply. This, after the specter of a pandemic had been envisioned for years. So, at the top, we have unwillingness to heed obvious warnings and an inability to take the lead in assembling the needed resources to fight the disease. Statisticians have concluded that delay - that is, inadequate leadership - may have cost as much of a third or more of the 100,000 American deaths due to COVID-19.
So much has been written about Donald Trump's bobbing and weaving, denying, blaming, self-contradiction, and shirking responsibility regarding the coronavirus, that there is little to add. Never has an American president embodied so many shortcomings: character flaws, dishonesty, inability to empathize, a misunderstanding of what it means to govern, perversion of the constitution and governing norms, his disdain for science, and projection of his own deficiencies into blame for others. The central conclusion can only be that he is an inadequate leader.
Not only has Donald Trump been inadequate, but he has active in promoting division among he American people at a time when unity is needed against the common enemy. He has stoked the culture wars in his singular focus on reopening the economy, come what may, thereby undermining state governments upon which he foisted responsibility. His refusal to wear a mask symbolizes his contempt for national unity. He is leading us to civil war.
We now know that precious weeks were lost in mobilizing to meet the invading virus. First it was denial that a threat existed. That is, denial in the Oval Office. And when it was recognized as a global pandemic, the weapons with which to fight were in insufficient supply. This, after the specter of a pandemic had been envisioned for years. So, at the top, we have unwillingness to heed obvious warnings and an inability to take the lead in assembling the needed resources to fight the disease. Statisticians have concluded that delay - that is, inadequate leadership - may have cost as much of a third or more of the 100,000 American deaths due to COVID-19.
So much has been written about Donald Trump's bobbing and weaving, denying, blaming, self-contradiction, and shirking responsibility regarding the coronavirus, that there is little to add. Never has an American president embodied so many shortcomings: character flaws, dishonesty, inability to empathize, a misunderstanding of what it means to govern, perversion of the constitution and governing norms, his disdain for science, and projection of his own deficiencies into blame for others. The central conclusion can only be that he is an inadequate leader.
Not only has Donald Trump been inadequate, but he has active in promoting division among he American people at a time when unity is needed against the common enemy. He has stoked the culture wars in his singular focus on reopening the economy, come what may, thereby undermining state governments upon which he foisted responsibility. His refusal to wear a mask symbolizes his contempt for national unity. He is leading us to civil war.
Comments
Post a Comment