We will need voters "brave" enough to make the right decision in November

Economists at the Bank of America are predicting overall contraction of the economy may be even worse than what others are predicting—10 percent for this year due to the coronavirus problem, compared to 4 percent during the now so-called “Great Recession” of 2007-2008. They expect a 30 percent contraction in the second quarter alone, although that number refers to the percentage if it continues at that same pace over an entire year. Just the thought of that happening should scare people who don’t think that 10 million layoffs in just the past two weeks isn’t scary enough, and the same analysts see the unemployment rate reaching north of 15 percent at some point. 

Some commentators believe that Donald Trump might be one of the few presidents to ever lose reelection despite a “booming” economy; but now we see former Obama advisor David Plouffe predicting there will be a record turnout of Trump supporters to insure his reelection—and this  despite recent polling showing Joe Biden with a 6 to 9 point edge nationally. How can this be? Trump is the very definition of what Republicans accused Barack Obama of doing in foreign policy—“leading from behind”—but in a starkly more dangerous way. People with actual medical training have said for weeks that the death toll from the coronavirus could reach 240,000 or more (depending on what "model" is used), and now some in the media are “praising” Trump’s “leadership” after he finally admits today that total deaths may not be the one or two he claimed would occur not even a month ago?

Trump claims to be a “wartime” president, just like Hitler who claimed to be a military “genius,” constantly overriding the advice of experienced generals, and the war ended in the wholesale destruction of Germany.  What we actually see from Trump is that when he claims to be “warfighting” it is not to insure that hospitals around the country receive the supplies they need, but in attacking the media and anyone who asserts rightly that things could have been much different if Trump had taken things not just more seriously before but even now. I mean, the U.S. is supposed to be the “world leader” in medical advances and research, isn’t it? If it is, then what we are seeing now is the failure of this country’s manufacturing capacity, and the failure of the Trump administration to put the country on a real “wartime” footing to fight this “war.”

Currently the U,S, accounts for one-third of the daily increase in coronavirus cases worldwide, and has more than double the number of reported cases than the next two countries in line (Italy and Spain), although despite its current low reporting of cases, most experts expect cases in India to literally explode, since only .0004 percent of the population has been tested, and the large majority of urban dwellers live in massive “shithole” slums—and at 1.3 percent of GDP, India spends one of the lowest, if not the lowest, amount of money for medical expenditures per capita in the world.   

How can people still believe that Trump has the best interests of the country in mind rather than his own? Believe me, I’ve been reading letters from a Trump and Fox News devotee for the past three years, and the biggest difference I see is a lack of empathy for others, a belief that the “others” are not pulling their “fair share,” and a fear that “change” from the status quo will cost them something, since deep down they don’t really believe that American is “great again,” but are willing to swallow Trump’s ideas of what that actually means, since it feeds into white grievance. There is an acceptance of misinformation that “confirms” one’s fears, personal prejudices and stereotypes. According to a study published on the National Academy of Science’s website in regard to the affect of Nazi propaganda on Germans, it not just magnified pre-conceived beliefs, but deeply infected those who were “empty vessels” ready to accept negative stereotyping as fact: “As one former member of the Hitler Youth later put it: ‘We who were born into Nazism never had a chance unless our parents were brave enough to resist the tide and transmit their opposition to their children. There were few of those.’” As we have seen in the Republican Party, those who are brave enough to oppose Trump are few and far between.

We will need a lot of “brave” people who don’t accept the dangerous propaganda of Trump and Fox News as the way forward for this country, and that means those who decided who was more “electable” on the Democratic side better back up their choice come November. Some way, some how, Trump must not be permitted to profit from his crimes against this country and its people. In meantime, to paraphrase Paul Simon, "Where have you gone, Joe Biden?  Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” He hasn’t left and gone away yet, although as a Bernie Sanders supporter none-too-surprised over more embarrassing Biden gaffefests this week, maybe he should have.