Post by sharksrog on Dec 4, 2021 19:03:52 GMT -5
Back when Donald Trump announced the ban on travel from China, Joe Biden responded by calling Trump a xenophobe. Because of the timing, Matt, I realize you inferred that Joe was opposing the travel ban, but that's not what he said. He simply called Trump a xenophobe, which of course he is. This occurred around the end of January, 2020. To put this in perspective, let's look at the events of January 27th and 28th.
On January 27th, Joe Biden wrote an opinion column in USA Today which said, "Trump's demonstrated failures of judgement and his repeated rejection of science make him the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health challenge. The outbreak of a new coronavirus, which has already infected more than 2700 people and killed 80 in China, will get worse before it gets better." A pretty good prediction on all accounts.
The following day, National Security Advisor briefed Trump that "This (the virus) will be the biggest security crisis of your presidency." Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger went a step further, warning that it could be the deadliest pandemic since the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. Pottinger added the explosive fact that roughly half the people who had contracted the virus in China were "asymptomatic" That meant that a seemingly healthy person could spread the virus, with the implications being explosive (as we've seen).
Now, in fairness, it was easier for Biden to criticize the person he was challenging for election than to take appropriate action even if he had been president. But his attitude shows a mindset that would have taken the warnings of the top National Security advisors far more seriously than Trump did. Trump was a person who when facing crises, tried to will them away. In business, it had worked well for him. But there was no willing the virus away, as we have seen in the nearly two years since.
Trump is a person who isn't overly worried by reality. He simply makes up his own, and he's darn good at selling it. Unfortunately, COVID wasn't buying. Biden is a reconciler, and he almost certainly would have taken the threat far more seriously than Trump did. Biden gave insight into the actions he would have taken when he criticized Trump for "his repeated rejection of science." Biden said Trump was "the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health challenge." He was much, much closer to being right than to be wrong. Trump ignored science, and he paid far too little attention to the warnings. Biden almost certainly would have leaned on our best scientific experts in the field.
Hopefully we would have taken the actions that South Korea and China itself did -- testing, tracing and isolating IMMEDIATELY, before the exponential growth of a pandemic could get out of hand, virtually impossible to control. and difficult to even contain.
When one looks at what Biden published as we neared the end of January, 2020, he easily sees that when Biden then called Trump a xenophobe, he was criticizing the president for being a xenophobe, not for closing the borders.
Fifty years from now when all of us here are dead and gone, what will Trump be most remembered for? Two things:
One will almost certainly be his abject failure with the pandemic, which will be better understood half a century from now than it is generally understood today, including the deaths and economic costs (all the way to a much decreased work force). The second will be his Big Lie, the lie he is using to try to destroy democracy. If there is a third thing, it will likely be that he became the first president to later be convicted. Or that despite all of this, he somehow got back in office, and the country and democracy further crumbled.
Aren't we already more divided than at any time since the Civil War?
"When the nonpartisan Pew Research Center recently surveyed people in 17 countries in Europe, Asia and North America, Americans were the most likely to say their society was split along partisan, racial and ethnic lines. The U.S. also reported more religious division than almost any other country surveyed."
On January 27th, Joe Biden wrote an opinion column in USA Today which said, "Trump's demonstrated failures of judgement and his repeated rejection of science make him the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health challenge. The outbreak of a new coronavirus, which has already infected more than 2700 people and killed 80 in China, will get worse before it gets better." A pretty good prediction on all accounts.
The following day, National Security Advisor briefed Trump that "This (the virus) will be the biggest security crisis of your presidency." Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger went a step further, warning that it could be the deadliest pandemic since the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. Pottinger added the explosive fact that roughly half the people who had contracted the virus in China were "asymptomatic" That meant that a seemingly healthy person could spread the virus, with the implications being explosive (as we've seen).
Now, in fairness, it was easier for Biden to criticize the person he was challenging for election than to take appropriate action even if he had been president. But his attitude shows a mindset that would have taken the warnings of the top National Security advisors far more seriously than Trump did. Trump was a person who when facing crises, tried to will them away. In business, it had worked well for him. But there was no willing the virus away, as we have seen in the nearly two years since.
Trump is a person who isn't overly worried by reality. He simply makes up his own, and he's darn good at selling it. Unfortunately, COVID wasn't buying. Biden is a reconciler, and he almost certainly would have taken the threat far more seriously than Trump did. Biden gave insight into the actions he would have taken when he criticized Trump for "his repeated rejection of science." Biden said Trump was "the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health challenge." He was much, much closer to being right than to be wrong. Trump ignored science, and he paid far too little attention to the warnings. Biden almost certainly would have leaned on our best scientific experts in the field.
Hopefully we would have taken the actions that South Korea and China itself did -- testing, tracing and isolating IMMEDIATELY, before the exponential growth of a pandemic could get out of hand, virtually impossible to control. and difficult to even contain.
When one looks at what Biden published as we neared the end of January, 2020, he easily sees that when Biden then called Trump a xenophobe, he was criticizing the president for being a xenophobe, not for closing the borders.
Fifty years from now when all of us here are dead and gone, what will Trump be most remembered for? Two things:
One will almost certainly be his abject failure with the pandemic, which will be better understood half a century from now than it is generally understood today, including the deaths and economic costs (all the way to a much decreased work force). The second will be his Big Lie, the lie he is using to try to destroy democracy. If there is a third thing, it will likely be that he became the first president to later be convicted. Or that despite all of this, he somehow got back in office, and the country and democracy further crumbled.
Aren't we already more divided than at any time since the Civil War?
"When the nonpartisan Pew Research Center recently surveyed people in 17 countries in Europe, Asia and North America, Americans were the most likely to say their society was split along partisan, racial and ethnic lines. The U.S. also reported more religious division than almost any other country surveyed."