The Vietnam War was once considered among the worst American catastrophes of the past century, with a little more than 58,000 dead Americans (and countless Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian people). Sept. 11 scarred the nation for a generation, with a little over 3,000 dead. And all of that pales in comparison to the current pandemic, which will soon equal two Vietnam Wars.
Hapless deer-in-headlights and impeached President Donald Trump can’t decide how to handle the pandemic. No, not the responding to the pandemic part—that part he gave up on from the very beginning. No, he can’t decide who to blame. But whether it’s Democrats or his intelligence agencies or the Chinese, one simple reality cuts through it all: A president’s No. 1 job is to keep Americans safe, and he’s failed that to a degree we haven’t seen in more than a century. He has objectively failed, and done so in historic, catastrophic fashion.
In July 2018, just before voters handed Republicans historic defeats at the ballot box, Trump adviser Bill Stepien, White House political director and Jared Kushner buddy, was explaining why his party would win that November. “Bottom line is Americans want security,” he told Vanity Fair. “They want to feel safe in the realm of national security and they want to feel economically secure. And on each front he’s delivered.”
Clearly, they didn’t feel safe and secure enough, way back in 2018, to avert serious disaster at the ballot box. Not to worry though: In Trump’s inner circle, it’s not success that’s rewarded (witness Kushner), but sycophancy. Stepien was just promoted to deputy campaign manager in a move some see as a demotion for actual campaign manager Brad Parscale. You might recall that Parscale is on the outs with Trump because he presented his boss with grim polling numbers. It’s likely just a matter of time before Parscale is out-out, and Stepien or Kushner is put in charge.
But I digress. Look back at that original quote:
Bottom line is Americans want security. They want to feel safe in the realm of national security and they want to feel economically secure.
This is undoubtedly true and the president’s oath is explicit in that regard: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic …”
His No. 1 job is to defend America against all enemies. The end.
But what is his current favorite excuse for our nation’s mass death event? Something-something it’s China’s fault.
Whatever mistakes China made (and no one will claim the country handled the spread of the virus with the necessary competence and transparency), the fact is we had plenty of warning to prepare for COVID 19’s arrival. But from disbanding the pandemic preparedness task force, to ignoring the pandemic playbook left behind by the Obama administration, to gutting the CDC and FEMA, to using his bully pulpit to spread misinformation and undermine the nation’s response, Trump very much rolled out a red carpet for national infestation, economic devastation, and death.
Put another way: Trump didn't keep us safe.
He didn’t keep us safe from an act of God.
And if you want to believe that it’s China’s fault, he also didn’t keep us safe from their actions.
Remember, Trump’s very own deputy campaign manager says the test for a president is Americans “feeling safe” in national security and “secure” in the economic realm. And now Trump has spectacularly failed at both.
So why would anyone keep around a president that has so spectacularly failed his No. 1 job?
It really is a testament to the right-wing bubble, our nation's high partisanization, and the bullshit undemocratic Electoral College that this election is as close as it is. In any regularly functioning democracy, we'd be counting down to the inevitable change of power. Instead, Trump is screaming about everything being RIGGED, because it's the only way he can process what his polls are showing him—that he's losing.
It’s quite remarkable that a guy who spends all day watching TV and all weekend golfing during a mass-death event can’t fathom that it might cost him at the ballot box. But that’s where we appear to be heading.
And it’s well-deserved. A failure of this magnitude deserves the most resounding “YOU’RE FIRED” the nation can muster. It wouldn’t undo the damage he’s done, but it would still offer some measure of satisfaction.