​THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES

Thoughts from ISJ Blogger Pat Andrews
 
   Ask Trump voters why they support him and they will tell you that it is because “we are anti-government; we are against government overreach; we believe government is not the solution but rather the problem.”
   Those same Trump voters, described as the white working class of non-educated voters, are sitting at their kitchen tables tonight calculating how much they can count on, personally and professionally, from the government’s new stimulus package to pay their rent, buy their groceries, save their business, protect their retirement, provide their health care and save their lives.  They have turned to the very government for which they hold such disdain. 
   Why?  Because their recklessness and foolishness and, cockiness, resulted in a Trump victory and enormous harm.
It is hard to forgive what is being done to our country by an inexperienced, incompetent, weak minded, and largely ignorant man and it is hard to forgive those who chose to place him in the highest office of our country.
   There are consequences.  All of us, now, are about to suffer from the failure of presidential leadership for months and years to come.  Unemployment.  Business failures. More homeless.  Lost pensions. A recession.  Family members dead.  
While the pandemic itself is no one’s fault, the failure to shepherd the country through it falls right into the lap of the President and the decisions, or lack of them, that he has made.  
   He got rid of trained personnel who could have been ready for this crisis.  He questioned whether there was a pandemic and then how serious it was. He perpetuated the assertion of his followers that it was a Democratic plot to discredit his presidency.  He claimed he had it under control and everything would be fine.  He said it would be gone by April, and was similar to the flu.   He said that tests were available for anyone who wants one, one of the more tragic lies.  He promised a quick vaccine. 
   President Trump’s actions and inactions are the result of his own ignorance and indifference and apathy and has become a recipe for disaster.  
   Why in heaven’s name do we not have a national shelter in place?  Why is there no national coordination of resources so that states do not have to fight with their neighbors for essential supplies.  Why is the testing still lagging while South Korea and Germany have found quick ways to test, trace and treat the virus as our leader spends time attacking reporters and governors and anyone who criticizes him?
   How can people follow or trust or listen to such a person?   But, some do and so we can only hope that our families survive the consequences he has wrought and quickly remove this White House from office and all who have supported it.     
 Our election in November can have consequences too.