One thing you may have learned from the average Conservative, it is this notion that the government would run better, if it were run like a private business. So, we end up with businesspeople — like Trump — in high levels of government, when they very likely would not be qualified for that position in any other sense.
Well, if we take that analogy to its logical conclusion — what would a private company do, when it’s current CEO has proven to be so incompetent, caused the company to lose a huge percentage of its profitability, wildly off the mark in predicting how to plan for the future, and is at this very moment standing in the way of immediately reversing the company’s downward trajectory?
Yeah, that company’s board wouldn’t even give him until the end of the week, before sending him the pink slip. If this were any similar scenario in the business world that Trump is so fond of acting like he is a battle-tested veteran of, he would have been fired by now.
Since we are not actually in the business world, the next best thing would be for Trump to resign.
As it stands now, it might not seem like there is grounds yet for calling for Trump’s resignation. While COVID-19 cases are still on an exponential growth curve, and the markets, while battered, likely still have lower yet to go, we are still not at the worst yet. The US hospital system still has not yet been burdened to the point of where Italy is at now, and we have not yet suffered the same level of mass death quite yet. And really, it is still too early to figure out how effective the extreme measures around the country to limit the spread of the disease, and flatten the curve, will truly be.
But that is why now would be in everyone’s best interests for Trump to resign. Because he has already proven how poorly bad he is at leading the country during this time of crisis, we already know the caliber of that leadership, and we already know that it is lacking. It is not nearly the level needed going forward for the country to avoid the worst that this crisis could have in store for us.
Most signs point to the current measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 to be insufficient, meaning a lot of lives are now likely hanging in the balance — but it is not too late. With actual leadership, someone with an actual determination to make the tough decisions and put the interests of every American at the top of their priority list, we may still be able to save a lot more lives than we are looking at now, with Trump still President.
With swift decisive action by our government, we can likely still save a lot of lives. But as it stands right now, Trump is actually undermining those efforts. Just as he has in the past several weeks. And just as he predictably will continue to do going forward. With so many lives now at stake, this is unacceptable.
I am well aware that if Trump steps down, the next in line would be none other than Mike Pence. That is still likely going to be a far better response, although I wouldn’t bet on it. And, perhaps, Pence would do some deep internal reflection, and realize that he, too, is not up to the task in leading this country through these dire times. In which case he could also resign as well, leaving those responsibilities to Nancy Pelosi — who, in my mind, has shown that she is willing to do what it takes to make sure swift action is taken to help Americans confront this crisis. She will not be intimidated by the monumental task at hand. She will not let partisanship slow down a response to COVID-19, that America really needs to be making at lightspeed right now. Unfortunately, every step of the way so far, Trump and Pence have shown the exact opposite of this.
Having Pelosi in the White House may not help with getting bills passed quicker through McConnell’s Senate, but with Executive Orders and other powers afford to the Executive Branch, she would be able to get far more resources out to the states and citizens. She could accelerate the pace of expanding COVID-19 testing in this country, get more disaster relief and workers on the ground where they will soon sorely be needed, and get forces such as the Army Corps of Engineers mobilized more quickly.
Perhaps, with the onslaught of COVID-19 spreading so rapidly throughout this country, and there already being so much turmoil and unease in the general public, it may seem irresponsible to also suggest something as extreme as transitioning to new leadership.
But on the contrary, I think it is really the move that would best help us respond to COVID-19 as urgently as the situation calls for. And with a true leader like Nancy Pelosi finally calling the shots, we may finally have the calming, measured communication out of the White House, that has been the one vital necessity that has been sorely lacking throughout this ordeal.
By almost every conceivable measure, Trump’s leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has been horrific. Anywhere else, he would have been fired by now, but that he is currently in a publicly elected office does not make his incompetence and poor decisions any less real. And just like in the business world, sometimes one of the best ways to move forward after such horrific debacles, is a clean slate.
Trump, it’s time you, and this country, go our separate ways.