Opinion/Editorial
TWENTY DAYS TO GO
November 3rd rushes at the republican party like a steam-driven WWII torpedo fired from a democratic submarine at a battered and beaten Titanic. How many can get off that ship, as the torpedo continues along its path, leaving a stream of bubbles to prove its there? Like the Titanic launching lifeboats, not to save the people trying to escape the tortured vessel, no, the boats are intended to place themselves between the ship and the torpedo. Whatever damage continues to be done by the democratic party to this analogous Titanic, the real threat, the terminal threat, still lays ahead, and the ship is captained by a madman who can see the giant iceberg 20 days ahead but chooses to view it as a low-lying cloud on the water. Where is the ability of Trump to stop the insane ranting he’s wildly into right now? How can he sway the moderates stuck in the middle of this election who might still choose to vote for him? Where is his support for some kind of new coherent plan to do something, anything about the spread of this virus? Where is his empathy displayed, when he has the virus himself? He’s attacking Bill Barr, the director of the FBI, and other officials of his own administration instead of at least giving the appearance of managing this “Titanic” ship of state?
Oh, it’s entertaining as hell, this whole mass media shit show. Even people as cloyingly rotten as Rush Limbaugh are turning on him. Drudge left the fold, for crying out loud! The tattered mess of republican survivors of this purge in conservative beliefs, in order to be replaced by a crazy adulation of a would-be dictator, has been an astounding wild ride. The Qanon folks, who are totally whacked in thinking the democratic party is filled with Satanists and child abusers, have morphed them into communists and socialists, as well. That would be laughable at any other time in the nation’s existence. The mass media news continues to be all bad, even though our country is now, without much room for doubt, in the middle of its greatest emotional depression of all time. There is good news not reported though. The nation has been battered but still is strong. The Spanish Flu following WWI killed about 674,000 in the U.S. out of a population back then of about 100 million. Most mortality was under age 65, by far. We’ve lost 217,000 (currently equal to about the population of Salt Lake City for perspective) out of about 338 million. The Spanish flu was a heck of a lot worse than what we are experiencing right now, although the numbers are not all in. Social distancing and masks are very likely working to prevent a lot of other diseases than just the Covid, and that’s good news too. Get a flu shot. Wear a mask almost everywhere. Distance and follow these new social rules of life….to save a life. We have many more tests available for the general public and a vaccine is probably right around the corner. Our military remains very strong and no outside country is trying to take real advantage.
There has seldom ever been a time, with the single exception of the Civil War, when elections themselves have been so questioned, when the results of the election threatened when the onset of a pandemic created not only widespread sickness but basically shut most of the country down economically. While these last days play out, it would appear that Donald Trump has gone all out in continuing what he has now being seen by most of the nation’s population as creating…a storm of bombastic emotional expressions, action rallies, as well as saying stuff that is simply mind-boggling in how wrong, dumb, and just downright silly it is. He stomps along, with vaguely weird support of Columbus Day. He misquotes Dr. Fauci in his speech and political ads, ridiculously claims that he’s immune from the virus. He then bandies about some new nuclear deal with Russia, of all places. Twenty Days. We can do that many. The country will be back. This is the most impactful inertial economy on earth, by far, and this country is populated with people from all walks of life that lean into the great winds of tremendous storms instead of away. Twenty Days. We can do Twenty Days.
