Most of you will understand the reference, but if you don’t, watch the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. In the pivotal scene the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz was revealed as just a man behind a curtain good at pulling levers that blew a lot of fire and smoke. That wizard, like Donald Trump, knew how to put on an impressive show.
To those of us with a brain, Trump was that always that man behind the curtain. It was obvious from the beginning. He was only something special to those who chose to believe otherwise. For many on the right, Trump is their last hope. He’s their hopelessly skewed knight in shining armor with a nontraditional way about him that somehow was going to make everything right again. “Right” in this case meant an end to the creeping anxiety they feel about a world changing too quickly. Change drives them nuts.
It’s not just a lot of Americans who have this anxiety; it’s people all across the world. Wannabee dictators are a dime a dozen and you don’t have to look far to find them. Two of the more prominent ones are Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil and Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philippines. Both promise through control that they will make things right again and ease the crushing anxieties of their populaces to a world changing too quickly.
Americans who picked Donald Trump were voting their anxieties too. Trump was to bring back Leave it to Beaver America, a time when America was triumphant, whites ran pretty much everything, and life was great. Actually, the 1950s kind of sucked. A lot of our success back then was our sky-high income tax rates, which ensured tons of money went to build up our infrastructure. Naturally, this aspect of the 1950s his supporters are particularly unwilling to bring back.
Trump was never this person and in fact modeled the opposite. The breadcrumbs were all around: the many failed businesses, failed marriages, infidelities and his wacky and crazy pants ideas. Trump sold us on a vision he could not possibly deliver. The real Donald Trump doesn’t spend all his time working for you. He uses government to enrich himself, which we now understand because he’s paid little in the way of income taxes for years and he’s massively in debt. Governing bores him. What he really likes to do is tweet, hold rallies and bask in the adulation of his die-hard fans.
And now we also learn that he’s not the Great and Powerful Trump, but just another guy with covid-19. He’s 74 and obese. Statistically, he has an 11% chance of dying from the disease now that he has it. Now at Walter Reed Naval Hospital, he has a team of doctors trying to get him well.
His doctors say he may be released tomorrow, but even if he goes back to the White House it says little. The disease seems to be worst on days 8-12. It’s very likely that his actual condition is much worse than the limited facts we are learning from his doctors. He apparently traveled to a fundraiser knowing he had tested positive and while he was already declining. It appears he’s been on supplemental oxygen but doctors won’t confirm it. Meanwhile, he’s taking a crazy array of drugs not normally given to those with covid-19 and often given to only the sickest of the sick, like dexamethasone. That alone suggests he’s getting oxygen, since it’s not given to those not needing supplemental oxygen because of the possibility of harm.
He likely carried the disease during last Tuesday’s “debate” with Joe Biden. Let’s hope the social distancing keeps Biden free of the disease, but Trump’s children and in-laws showed their support by taking off their masks, a clear violation of the rules the campaign had agreed to. But, of course, Trump is all about breaking the rules as he did almost constantly during the debate itself.
Prominent Republicans all over the places are coming down with the disease or are testing positive. You can watch many of them slapping each other’s backs at the ceremony in the Rose Garden where Trump introduced his pick for the Supreme Court. No masks. No social distancing. People shaking hands and hugging. Chairs were laid next to each other.
It’s getting so bad that three Republican senators have tested positive, so it’s unclear if Trump’s supreme court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett can get a quick hearing. It’s not clear if due to the absence of these senators if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has to votes to even advance the nomination. All this is because Republicans swallowed the Trump Kool-Aid. They were too spineless to wear masks and social distance because they worried Trump would be mad at them.
Some are wondering if karma is at work. Trump has dodged it all his life. I like the idea of karma, but I’m skeptical it’s a thing. It suggests there are some higher and unseen forces at work.
Trump could die from covid-19. It’s true I would not shed any tears if he did, except possibly of joy. It would certainly feel just. But it would not actually be just. His death would simply be another way he avoided accountability for his actions; it would be anti-karmic. He deserves to get well enough to lose massively at the polls, so there is no ambiguity that voters rejected not just Trump, but Trumpism. Today’s NBC News/WSJ poll shows Biden with a 14% lead nationally. Trump is now polling under 40%, which is Herbert Hoover territory.
Much like the unpopular Jimmy Carter, Hoover went on to have a very successful ex-presidency. Assuming we can stave off civil war and put Joe Biden successfully in office, this is unlikely to be Trump’s fate. So, here’s hoping Trump survives this disease so the law can finally catch up to him. But I fear he will cheat his way out of it. Dying of covid-19 may be his only way out.
Occam's Razor 