Covid has shed a light deep into the American society and continues to do so. Unfortunately the American Covid show is playing not only for American audiences but a world one. Perhaps more than with any other country, what happens here is showcased to a global audience. So as we and the world look at America and Covid, what do we see?
AMERICA’S TECHNOLOGICAL PROWESS
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the shining lights of America’s response to Covid has been the quick development of not just one but multiple vaccines. This development was a long time in the making. It built on years of scientific research that had no immediate payback. If ever there was a case study in the benefit of pure research it is in the disease that continues to infect America. Without all that behind-the-scene and below-the-radar work by research scientists we would not have been able to develop the vaccines as quickly as we did. Whether or not the American public realizes this development history is problematic meaning “No, it does not.” One only has to listen to people declare that the vaccine was developed too quickly with shortcuts to realize what has occurred. At least with the Moon Landing, people could physically observe the steps being taken along the way. By contrast, the America people do not know the Mercury and Gemini stages existed in the development of the vaccines; they just see the Apollo moon landing as if it happened out of nothing.
AMERICA’S STUPIDITY
Just as America’s technological prowess makes us the envy of the world, so our stupidity makes us a laughingstock of the world. Unfortunately these displays extend from the highest level in society to a surprisingly wide swath of the general population.
This is not the place to recount all the absurdities uttered by Little Donnee Disinfectant. He will be a case study all by himself in future crisis management classes. He will join the ranks of Nero fiddling while Rome burns (which is not fair to Nero!) as exemplifying ineptitude and incompetence during a crisis.
But the critical point is that he has paid little price for his shortcomings. True, he did lose the election but still received around 75 million votes. His continued support shows that true believers do not hold him accountable and they are eager to return to the office which he had stolen from him.
The bigger example of American stupidity is in response to the vaccine itself. Remember how you once thought the development of the vaccine would mean the end of the pandemic? Now here we are going from being on the brink of normalcy to having infection rates that are off the charts compared to what we once thought was the worst.
The only tracing that is occurring at present is from the anti-vaxx adherents who threaten “we know where you live. We will find you.” You would think the school boards were election poll workers who reported the results honestly the way they and others are being vilified today. All around the world even in trump-hole countries people are clamoring for the vaccine…except here.
Meanwhile governors and parents are eager to sacrifice children in the quest to be the 2024 presidential nominee, to spite Joe Biden, or because of their Constitutional right to play Russian roulette with the lives of other people. However just to show they are not anti-science, they will take a horse cure, go to a hospital when infected, and expect everyone else to pay the bill for their stupidity. How long did it take Trumpican Governors to heroically boast that they will not allow Joe Biden to end the pandemic in their state no matter how many people it infects and kills? Remember how the world looked at us when the vaccine first exploded throughout the country especially in New York? Now Americans from across the country are indelibly stamping the USA as a place of idiots.
MEANING FOR THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
One must keep in mind that the race to the bottom by Trumpican wannabees is futile (Abbott, DeSantis, Johnson, and Scott: The Race to the Bottom). That position is already occupied. He is running in 2024 and will put the wannabees in their place. There is nothing to be gained by selling your soul unless you think it will benefit you in 2028.
One also must keep in mind there is a difference between being a leader and being a con artist (Do Tucker/Trump Oppose the Socialist Chlorination of Water?). An effective con artist has to tailor the con to the gullibility and fears of the target. For example, in 2008, Barack Obama as a foreign-born Moslem was very effective. In 2016, “lock her up” and “build a wall” similarly were effective. The con artist follows the crowd and then amplifies the fear to make a killing.
That approach may not work in 2024. We have already seen what happened in Alabama when the 2024 nominee admonished his followers to get the vaccine. It backfired on him just as it had when Hannity did the same on his cable show. This reality puts the con artist in a strange position. How can he take credit for the development of something his supporters do not want to use? The people with the loudest voices at the rallies will be the ones who have not taken the vaccine, not the ones who have.
So what do you do in the 2022 Congressional elections? Every Trumpican candidate is going to be asked on the position on the vaccine. The new mantra by the vocal Tea-Party-Trumpicans will be for parental choice and NO VACCINE!!! Think about it. One political party that wants to govern the supposedly most powerful country in the world will be intimated by its base into vilifying Dr. Fauci, praising screwball cures, and championing the needless exposure of children … and it thinks that is a winning message.
As a result, one of the Democratic posters for the 2022 and 2024 elections will be a surprising one. It will show a revision of the famous “Uncle Sam Wants You recruiting posters. Only now it will be a picture of the Joe Biden and the former-President-now-challenger both saying “We want you to get the vaccine!”
HOW CHINA, AND RUSSIA AND ISIS CAN DEFEAT AMERICA
Our enemies are watching our public displays of stupidity. This scenario will happen in the movies before it does in real life but think of the opportunity we are displaying to our adversaries. China, Russia, and ISIS know or will realize that a virus attack against the United States will work. They know that even if the United States has a vaccine and/or cure for the virus, tens of millions of people will not take it. They would rather die first.
So let us just say that an adversary has some smallpox virus. Suppose years from now the anti-vaxx people have eliminated the requirement to be vaccinated against anything and everything. What would happen if China released the smallpox in the United States? It would claim to have a vaccine which it would distribute for free throughout the world. Meanwhile millions of Americans would decline to protect themselves against smallpox unless instructed to do so by Mr. Ed. I am not saying this will happen; I am saying that Covid exposes how willing too many Americans are not to defend themselves against viruses.
The lessons of Covid will continue to unfold to both an American and world audience. Joe Biden will try to be the President the United States needs to end the pandemic. His 2024-challenger and his supporters will fight him every step of the way. As befitting his immaturity, the sore loser has challenged the President to enter the arena against him on the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. He really believes that is a true test of leadership. If he was the only one who believed it, he could be institutionalized so he could get the care and help he needs. Unfortunately since Trumpicans think that challenge proves their Lord and Savior has the right to be commander in chief, we could be in for an even bigger assault in 2024 on America than either from 1/6 or Covid.
