The Partisanship of a Pandemic

I’d like to offer one short perspective on the partisanship of this pandemic, and rather than anyone taking it personally, I hope you will simply consider it.  Every single aspect of our lives has been infected with toxic partisanship over the past several years, and the fact that a pandemic exacerbates that should be embarrassing to all of us.

There is absolutely NOTHING good about this.  People are dying, our economy is tanking, children aren’t learning, good, hard-working people are falling further and further into financial ruin.  This is awful for this country and our world, and we are to blame for making it worse than it should be.  We’ve let the ridiculously unwinnable disease of partisanship cloud what should be nothing more than billions of people coming together as residents of Earth to help each other get through this.

But let’s focus on this country for now.  And let’s start at the top, because that’s exactly where it should start. And yes, those of you that can’t handle seeing anything critical of Trump, I honestly wouldn’t change what I’m going to say anyway, but I promise I will share the criticism with both sides of the aisle. But I am starting with him. Anybody that wants “total authority” should be okay with that.

For three years, I’ve been hearing that Donald J Trump is “not a politician, he’s a businessman.”  Can we now agree that people who say this are blinded by the very obvious fact that he has become the most political politician (not to mention the most polarizing politician) of my lifetime and possibly ever?

He IS a politician now.  Full-blooded.  And if you think I’m about to put all the blame on him because of that, you’re wrong.  I’m simply pointing out that you CANNOT call him “not a politician” anymore.  Everything that comes out of his mouth is done with the intention of displacing blame onto China or the “Do Nothing Democrats” while seemingly being unable to grasp what the accountability of leadership looks like. If you’re willing to see it impartially, I won’t need to include more examples of why he is now a full-blooded politician. You’ll be able to admit that you’ve known it for a long time and it’s now on display every single day.

I am going against one of the major points of my campaign in writing this, but the reason I’m doing it is because we can’t fix it until it’s acknowledged.  That “major point” is the practice of placing blame, and I loathe it amongst politicians with every fiber of my being.  But I’m sorry, we are ALL to blame for our reactions to this, whether you’re a politician, far left, far right, a Trump hater, a Trump lover, a centrist, a media member, or somebody who couldn’t give a rat’s ass about politics.

First, because it most certainly DOES start at the top, I blame Trump for thinking he was and is smarter than doctors and infectious disease experts because he didn’t take it seriously at first and now acts like he knows more than the experts.  I blame him for being so toxic and mean and hateful that he brought most of this Trump bashing on himself (and no, that doesn’t mean I condone the bashing because it’s battling childishness with childishness.)  But you simply can’t treat people the way he does and expect people to respect you in return.  Freaking third graders know that.  I really don’t understand why that needs explaining.

I also blame his followers for NEVER holding him accountable for ANYTHING, believing his word is often loftier than gospel, and mirroring his stance that EVERYTHING is the “damn liberals” fault.  No, hell, it isn’t. Is some of it their fault? Absolutely. It would be idiotic to say otherwise.  But sometimes he’s wrong, too.  Some people will argue that it’s a lot.  But NOBODY on Earth is as god-like as the staunchest Trump supporters suggest he is.

Not to be outdone, I blame Pelosi and Schumer and all the other faces of the Democratic party for not coming right out and saying, “You know what, we don’t like Trump, but there is no way in hell we’re going to make it look like we are excited about this economic downturn and its chances that it could bury Trump in November.”  If they haven’t been smiling at the economy internally, it’s because they’re smiling externally behind closed doors.  And if I’m wrong, then why does it feel like they’re a little bit happy about this?

And why does it feel like the far left refuses to empathize with those people who are protesting? I’m lucky enough that I don’t have to walk in their shoes, but can you imagine if you did? Can you imagine burning through a stimulus check in a week and never buying a single morsel of food? Can you imagine the very real possibility that the business you slaved over for a decade might be destroyed in a month? Can you imagine the fear of being a parent scared to wake up every morning because you know you don’t have food or health insurance or enough to pay the bills for your family?

And does anybody else get the feeling that those on the far left are rooting for this to take Trump down?

It just feels disgusting to me that we are at this place in our country. This isn’t about an election or partisanship or the economy or even f*$%ing toilet paper.  It’s about American lives and livelihoods and the lives and livelihoods of human beings around the world.

I mean, look at the hypocrisy of partisanship right here in North Carolina.  Cooper is being bashed by half the state for what I can only tell is the refusal to fall in line with exactly what they want.  They want him to come up with a better plan all while defending a president whose plans, arguments, ideas, and recipients of his blame change 47 times in a month.  

This is unprecedented for EVERY politician, and even though I am far more critical of Trump than many people, I am wholeheartedly rooting for him because if he gets this right, even if it is a little late, lives and our economy will be saved.  Why would I root against him? And in that same conversation, why are we bashing Cooper for doing EXACTLY what every other governor in the nation is doing: trying to figure out the best way to save lives and livelihoods at the same time.

Again, this is unprecedented and people act like our leaders should have all the answers. They don’t. But I sure as hell hope we are all well aware that jobs and businesses can be rebuilt. Lives can’t be resurrected. I hope both state AND federal leaders are finding every way imaginable to save everything they can with that main idea in mind.  

But there will inevitably be blame, and we have to acknowledge it so that we can move past it. So let’s finish the blame. It’s not just the fault of politicians and their loyalists.  A lot of the media coverage has been absolutely needed.  It has been legitimately covered and factually reported and has truly helped the American people stay abreast of all that is happening in this country and the world. 

But some of it is fearmongering, clickbait, Trump-bashing, look-at-me-I-need-attention reporting that is gravely unnecessary at a time like this.  Report the facts and find the hope. That’s all they need to do right now. If facts shed light negatively on somebody, so be it, but don’t spin it. Just report it.

Lastly, I blame us.  The people.  I see people trash other people on social media because they lump them into the “cult” or into the “damn liberals” camp without a second thought.  They share conspiracy theories that don’t solve ONE DAMN THING.  They act like we don’t all live in the f*%$ing United States and have the same ridiculous rights to believe whatever the hell we want to believe (and yes, that was somehow both serious and sarcastic.) 

But now, suddenly, many Americans feel that one of their rights is to condemn others for not falling in line with their beliefs.  Because only one set of beliefs is right and the other deserves condemnation, right?  If you spend enough time on social media, this is the theme, is it not?

Let’s go beyond blame to finish this up. The opposite of blame is credit, right?  When all of this is resolved, who gets credit for the good ideas, the as-yet-determined treatments, the lives saved, the jobs saved, the livelihoods saved, the binding of Americans who are so ready to fall apart?  Who should get credit for all of that?  Somebody will seek the credit, right?  Somebody deserves the credit, do they not?  So who gets credit for all of that, huh?

Nobody.  It shouldn’t freaking matter.  Grow up and be Americans – humble, selfless Americans – not members of political parties.  We can fight over abortion tomorrow.  We need to fight for Americans today.