From the Oval Office, in times of crisis American presidents address the people. As COVID-19 races like a prairie fire and violence erupts in the streets, we yearn for information and assurance.
Transformative presidential addresses embody truth and hope. Paradoxically, identifying, merely naming the problem, dragging it out of the closet, triggers feelings of relief. Knowing and facing the issue head-on, our prospect of managing it enhance immeasurably. The classic, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s inaugural address, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Nine months into the COVID 19 pandemic, as America closes in on 150,000 dead and 3,000,000 cases, Donald Trump’s drumbeat the virus is “under control,” “not a problem,” will go away through a “miracle,” “with or without a vaccine,” fly in the face of reality. In “A Few Good Men” Marine Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson) famously shouted, “You can’t handle the truth!” President Trump can’t handle the truth of COVID 19 or most reality!
It’s there. Read the numbers. Study the graphs. With five percent of the world’s population America has one quarter of its COVID 19 cases, more than all of Europe combined. States continue reporting record numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, with PPE shortages and refrigerated vans reminiscent of New York City in April. Social distancing safeguards, relaxed only weeks ago, are “rolled back.” All thanks to a dangerously irrational, tragically incompetent President.
When Donald Trump opens his mouth things always go south. Despite not having the Presidential platform, Joe Biden can and must make The Speech!
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