Ironically the Pandemic May Have Save Us

Ironically enough the pandemic may have saved us from Donald Trump serving an eight year term. There is a reasonable case to be made that with the economy doing well in 2019, the support of his huge base at the time and Biden running against him, Trump could have pulled it off.

But the Covid-19 Pandemic got in his way and his extreme narcissism prevented him from doing the right thing to combat the virus. His total focus on himself forced him to downplay the seriousness of the threat and even when it became apparent that we were in big trouble he refused to acknowledge the danger and led us down the path of so much destruction to our country. This culminated in the Jan 6th insurrection and a year later here we are with over 900,000 deaths and the country divided on almost any topic you can name.

I wonder just how bad it would have been if there had been no pandemic and Trump had been re-elected for a second term. Suffice to say that it would have been just as bad as the first 4 years but maybe it would have been worse as all the evidence coming out about his behavior while in office points to a deeply disturbed man who will do anything to bolster his own ego and blast through any guardrails that exist to keep him under control.

I believe the lesson here is that this country has never been prepared for a man like Trump to become President. Our system is built on layers of trust instead of layers of explicit laws that guard against authoritarian depots like Trump. We have always relied on the good will and good sense of honorable men to of the right thing. Sure, there have been back-room plotting, back stabbing deals and dirty politics throughout our history but there has never been someone like Trump and we are ill prepared to deal with him and his millions of supporters.

So many people in this country are just worn out by this pandemic and what energy they do have at the end of the day is spent on just trying to move a step forward and not fall. We as a nation are exhausted by everything in the news so we tend to tune it out and go about our day doing our jobs, {if we have one}, spending time with family, and staying safe from the virus.

Without the pandemic and Trump in the White House for another term this country would have avoided the horror of so much suffering and deaths but maybe death from a thousand cuts would have been our fate under another Trump term. I suppose, given a choice, I would have picked another Trump term instead of a pandemic. I have not been out of my house much at all for 2 years and it has been hard on our family. We have been lucky to have avoided the virus but as a life-long Democrat it has been equally hard to endure all the damage that Trump continues to do to our country. Not to mention the hoards of Trump supporters who flock to his rallies to hear him say the same old crap over and over again. Thankfully the ralies have started to dimenish in size and bordom has set in when he starts to speak. Most seem to attend just to get together with other Trumpers, dress up, cook food, buy swag and hang out.

Maybe the Pandemic saved us from another Trump term but in the end it seems like having to choose between two evils with no end in sight from either one.