A second American has died from the coronavirus, and the disease continues to spread with more confirmed cases in the United States. The debate should not be driven by a political blame game but should be focused on what we all can do to protect ourselves and our families. Unfortunately, during this presidential election year, asking some Americans to put politics aside for the good of the country is too much to ask.
The coronavirus is real and is spreading around the world as well as in the United States. A second American has died from the disease in the Seattle area, and cases have been confirmed now in the Northeast.
In Lake Oswego, Oregon, a prominent upscale suburb of Portland, a teacher was diagnosed with coronavirus; and there is deep concern about how many people she may have come in contact with before being diagnosed.
In the political blame game, President Trump has downplayed the threat of the disease in America and has promoted that his administration has been proactive from the beginning. Fears over the spread of the coronavirus sent the stock market into a serious downward spiral last week. There have been legitimate reasons the market reacted, including the impact the disease has had on China workers and the effect that could have on America’s economy. Like it or not – our economy is closely tied to China.
President Trump and his strongest supporters have defined his success as president to a booming stock market; and though the market’s fall last week was not Trump’s fault – there was a wholesale effort to downplay the possible spread of the disease in America. The hope was to ease the fall in the stock market. But in trying to protect President Trump’s political image – Trump and conservatives were quick to accuse the media and Democrats of exaggerating the fear of the disease spreading as a conspiracy to take down the President.
As I write this blog – the stock market is up over 700 points, a predictable response to stock prices going down – but the idea that the media fabricated fear over the spread of coronavirus for the purpose of damaging President Trump’s image seems more ridiculous than real.
Donald Trump, Jr. added to the political blame game when he appeared on Fox News and said, “For them [Democrats] to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning is a new level of sickness.”
Vice President Mike Pence, appearing on CNN, said that he agreed with Donald, Jr.’s claim that Democrats want coronavirus to “kill millions of people.”
The notion that Democrats – as much as they are despised by many conservatives – would hope that millions of Americans die to take down the Trump presidency is yet another sign on the road to political idiocrasy.
Yes, there are Democrats who are working to take Trump down, and there have been many questionable battles in that crusade. However, to say that Democrats want millions of Americans to die perfectly illustrates the political lunacy in America today.
What is most tragic about the political blame game is that it may actually impede the United States’ efforts to stop the spread of the disease.
The news media does sensationalize stories and the thought of a new disease spreading across the country and potentially killing Americans is one of those “perfect storm” media stories. But – we the people – have a responsibility to be sensible about those stories that be exaggerated.
We don’t know if – or how much – the fears are being exaggerated – but enough is known for us to heed warnings and not pass them off as politically-motivated.
Regardless of what the political parties do to try to blame each other and regardless of the possibility that fears over coronavirus are exaggerated by a news media trying to attract your attention – you and I have the power to stop the political blame game by simply not playing.
But I fear that the tone of politics in 2020 is such that the political blame game is too much fun for some to refuse to be contestants.