A Spoiled Nation with Many Spoiled People
The coronavirus found a steady path to despoiling the lives and livelihoods of people everywhere. Like climate change, it doesn’t care how rich or famous or walled off you are. It only cares, like Mr. Trump, for itself, which is to say, no one. In many places, the lives of the poor clustered in close confines have and will continue to bear the brunt of this pandemic. The wealthy will avoid it for the most part. But America will hold a special place in Covid’s history of success, for while being the richest and among the best educated countries in the world, the United States has become an oxymoron. We were never united in our response thanks to the vanity and inanity of Mr. Trump, who has never and does not merit the title of President.
Trump’s pathological narcissism has turned our nation, that once shiny beacon on a hill, into a pitied, passed by and dithering democracy with a loose collection of public servants who have been prevented from doing the right thing on a scale horribly unworthy of the greatness won during WII, the confounding communism after that war, and the championing of human rights the world over for decades.
Beyond this failure from the top is the selfishness, pettiness and foolishness of countless Americans who rush to Trump rallies without masks, who boo football players demonstrating their rights, who exclaim they will not be tread on as they tread maskless on the lives of others, and who want to go to restaurants and football games and shopping because it is their right to do so. Yes, keeping businesses and institutions afloat is vital to our nation’s wellbeing. But surely, a great nation would find a way to protect the economic health of those battered by this pandemic and made to pay dearly to prevent its spread. But we have not.
Our once great nation of strivers has too many spoiled, indulged and me-firsters to merit the honors it once richly deserved. As a people, we have time to set this right. And with every right we cherish, we have a moral duty to preserve the right of all our citizens that our government will seek to protect us and spare us the indignity of being a nation governed by ignorance, indifference, and indecision.
VOTE.
