In life, there comes a moment when it all becomes too much to bear. When that moment arrives, a basically good and enormously patient parent finally must say to an errant offspring: “You must leave this house for the sake of us all; and go take care of yourself in the world. This is for your own good, as well as ours. We’ll assist you in getting the help you need, but you must go. Now. Make your arrangements to be out of the house by this coming weekend. You need to understand just how important this is. But there is no compromising; you must go.”
This becomes necessary when the child in question has wrecked the family car, burnt down the tool shed, stolen money from the parents’ wallets and bank accounts, insulted every relative who has ever come for a visit, thrown broken bottles into the neighbours’ yards, tried to poison their dogs and then misappropriated everyone in the family’s personal property.
In addition, he has terrorised his younger siblings during all those unanticipated moments of wild name-calling at relatives and friends, and then there have been the bouts of pure rage that seem to have come about, without warning, at the drop of the proverbial hat.
The US has now reached that point. As a nation. And as a people.
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Yes, it is true the country will have a general election in less that two months. And, yes, if all the polling is accurate, the incumbent president is on course to receive a stunning defeat at the hands of the US electorate. This will almost certainly arrive in the popular vote totals (especially once all those mail-in votes are finally tabulated). But it is increasingly likely it will also come via the all-important, state-by-state electoral vote total, the proportionate weights of state populations that actually determine who lives in the White House from 20 January 2021.
But we should not have to wait even that long. It is enough, already. It is more than enough.
The recent revelations in the audio tape recordings made by reporter Bob Woodward in conversations with the incumbent president for his upcoming book clearly point to a man so callous, so uninterested in his actual job and its responsibilities to protect his fellow citizens, and ultimately so unfit to carry out its most fundamental duties that he deserves to be relieved of those heavy burdens, forthwith.
The constitutionally prescribed oath of office to become president is a simple yet sweeping affirmation. It reads: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” And now, with the Woodward tapes and the book that builds on them, it is manifestly clear the incumbent has abrogated this oath. He has been captured, on tape, in his own voice, acknowledging he knew Covid-19 was a deadly disease, far worse than usual influenza epidemics and that it was highly contagious. But, crucially, because he said he didn’t want to encourage fear and panic, he deliberately played it down publicly, including those infamous comments that it would all disappear in the spring just like that, “traloo, tralay”, like magic. Or, as the incumbent president said to Woodward, “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed … This is deadly stuff.” In response to this latest, astonishing comment, Democratic challenger Joe Biden has responded, “While a deadly disease ripped through our nation, he failed to do his job — on purpose. It was a life-or-death betrayal of the American people.” Yup.
At this rate of infection, epidemiologists are predicting upwards of 400,000 fatalities will have been caused in the US by this disease by the end of December. There will also be millions upon millions of non-fatal cases (many serious) across the country, in addition to the economic dislocations and distress that have come about because of this ineptitude. Simply in the number of fatalities, the numbers are heading towards the number of fatalities suffered by the US during the entirety of World War 2.
The reasons for the incumbent’s desire to avoid panic were threefold. The first was a need to ensure maximum complacency on the part of the public for his re-election bid, based on the positive economic numbers that had been buoying his support. The second was still more insidious – it was to downplay the need for any coordinated federal action, thereby pushing responsibility for virtually everything, including the onerous shutdowns and lockdowns, on to the states and cities for them to cope as best they might with all of the difficult circumstances. The third, of course, was that as the virulence of the disease became ever clearer to even the most obdurate people, rather than lead the nation, there was the great shirking of responsibility in order to point the finger of blame at China, the incumbent’s favourite whipping boy.
And the bodies continue to pile up in morgues and then on into their graves.
The end result of this is now a thoroughly panicked, increasingly distrustful, ever more politically divided nation. Millions are mistrustful of any progress towards vaccines, distrustful of efforts to carry out even the most basic of public health requirements (masks, social distancing, and track and trace systems), and the deeply thorough politicisation of the entire disaster as a ploy by the incumbent’s political opponents to cast doubt on his, the sublime leadership.
And still the bodies pile up in morgues across the nation without let-up.