There’s spin, there’s spin taken to the nth degree, and then there’s this:
According to Erin Perrine, the President’s Director of Communications, the fact that Donald Trump contracted COVID-19 and, apparently, survived it, makes him highly qualified to make policy decisions about the disease. His condition is a credential, a badge of honor that he can wear proudly. After all, who but someone who’s come face to face with the Grim Reaper–and won, we all know that the Donald is a winner—could possibly have more insight into the pandemic.
Corollary: Joe Biden, who foolishly wears masks everywhere he goes, has failed to contract the disease. Without first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to receive supplemental oxygen and be on several experimental drugs, how could he possibly have any understanding of COVID and how to handle it. Poor Joe, if only he’d stop hiding behind that mask and get sick as a sign of his commitment to the American people.
According to this logic, among the best qualified to lead on COVID are six Republican Senators who have all tested positive, all non-mask wearers, all brave rather than fearful, all proudly wearing their I-SURVIVED-COVID t- shirts. Add to the list Melania, Hope Hicks, Kayleigh McEnany, and Kellyanne Conway. They have all have ordered their t shirts and anxiously await delivery from Amazon.
Herman Cain, the 74 year old pizza magnate who shook up the 2016 Presidential campaign for a while, will not be wearing his, however. An enthusiastic attendee of the President’s indoor rally in Tulsa, Cain contracted the disease shortly after cheering on the President with thousands of other unmasked citizens and passed away when his lungs lost their battle to that insidious foreign invader, the Chinese flu.
Herman Cain is one of over 200,000 Americans who have succumbed to this horrific infectious disease. He was known, but not well-known enough, I fear, to put a face and a name to the tragedy of this disease. For our hale and hearty President they are all numbers and anonymous losers. They are simply a very large batch of not-me’s.
First it was “I don’t have to wear a mask or distance, I won’t get it,” and now, just when becoming gravely ill should have somehow made him gain some real insight, instead the message is, “I got it and I’m still alive, so how bad could it be?”
I don’t wish harm to Ivanka or that idiot, Don Jr. I’m not wishing that Chris Christie, COVID-positive, morbidly obese and with asthma, kicks the bucket. I cannot bring myself to wish that Bill Barr or Rudy Giuliani would die (although I certainly don’t wish them well either). But what will it take for the Donald to put a face and a name to this disease and finally to take it seriously?
Although I want to reiterate that I don’t wish anyone’s death, I can’t help but see the image of a Trump family member passing, the family gathering closely together at graveside—maskless—and one of his stupid spokespeople telling the grieving public, “In lieu of donations, the family has requested that all right-minded citizens get out and vote for Donald Trump as a form of respect and remembrance.”