We're In The Grip Of A Suicide Cult.

The mantra "Never let a good crisis go to waste" has become, in 21st-century American politics, an approach to achieving, maintaining, and expanding political power that both sides of our current deep divide have been able to claim for their respective purposes.  In fact, it was used first in the Obama Administration, which saw in the 2008 Wall Street meltdown an opportunity to gain ground in policy areas dear to liberals:  financial re-regulation, obviously, but also stimulus spending that employed union workers and expanded the use of renewable energy sources, and health care reform that would end the threat of pre-existing conditions to the insurability of many Americans.  And, to a degree, that approach paid off.  Not, of course, to the complete satisfaction of American progressives.  But to a degree that now fills those same progressives with a more appreciative, nostalgic perspective.

And to a degree that made most Republicans angry.  Hoping that Obama would screw up his Presidency and play into the racism that many of us have known for decades serves as the fuel for their own political goals, they waited for an opportunity to once again take control and smash all of his accomplishments to pieces  If they have not completely succeeded, it is mainly because of the determined efforts of attorneys (full disclosure to newcomers:  my wife and I have our own law firm), and the 2018 election that restored the House of Representatives to Democratic control.  Obama was their "crisis," so far as they were concerned.

But, in a twist of fate, focusing on undoing everything the first African-American President done distracted them from the most fundamental obligation any government can have to the governed:  safety.  Trump's dismantling of the pandemic apparatus Obama had put into place, and his subsequent willingness to ignore the mounting warning signs, allowed the coronavirus pandemic to devour almost every aspect of our lives, and has created a physical climate in which, in the systemic absence of testing and contact tracing that would give us a more precise idea of the pandemic's scope (and how to treat and end it), no one can feel safe because no one knows what the path to safety looks like.  We have all been hoisted, along with the Republicans, on the petard of the way in which the Trump Administration has practiced its own form of "crisis" politics.

And, amazingly they are still at it.

Last weekend, I was reading this in the New York Times Magazine, about Hart Island, just off the coast of the Bronx.  Today, it's become the burial ground for COVID-19 victims who had neither families who could claim their bodies, nor the means otherwise to afford a decent funeral.  These people were predominantly those who were at the bottom end of the economic spectrum, the people who get ignored the most, in part because they remind us of the level of poverty all of us are separated from by no more than one small twist of fate.  An even more powerful reason for the neglect that we give is the fact that, not by coincidence, they are people of color.

As outlined in the article, Hart Island has historically been a convenient place to ignore the dispossessed in American society.  So it's not terribly surprising to see it fulfill that role again.  Indirectly, it reminded me of the controversy over Donald Trump failing to follow the precedent other presidential candidates before him have of releasing his tax returns.  This failure, which exist solely for the purpose of hiding his status as an utter failure in business, is of a piece with his utter ignorance of American history and his general mental instability.  Once this nightmare of an Administration is over, I think that we should pass a law requiring all presidential candidates to not only release 10 years worth of tax returns, but also submit to a full mental and physical medical examination by an independent physician, and pass a test indicating that they understand the basics of American history.

But I digress.

It's important to remember that, in a crisis of the magnitude of the current one, the hardest-hit are always people of color, because our Republic, from the very beginning, has placed them at the very bottom, first by way of their legal status, and later by way of laws that denied them the most basic opportunities for economic advancement.  As I read the Times article, I found myself thinking:  is that what this shocking defiance of medical science by Trump all about?  Is this simply, in the disco of his mind, one last effort on the way out the door of the White House to shaft people he has always looked down about, that he was taught from the beginning of his life to look down upon?  In and of itself, it's plausible enough; I mean, this is Trump we're talking about.

But the one thing that Trump never stops doing is calculating his self-interest, and how to preserve, protect, and advance it.  Thousands of people may be dying, but Trump, narcissist that he is, goes on.  Which is why I found this article by David Frum in The Atlantic so disturbing.  Frum, a Never-Trump Republican, describes what he calls a Plan A and a Plan B in Trump's thinking.  In Plan A, he just gives up entirely any effort to contain the virus and protect the American people, and throws anyone and everyone but himself and people who are useful to him to the pandemic wolf.  In Plan B, to shore up what's left of his chances for re-election, he takes whatever political spoils are available and deprives his opponents of them, while sharing them generously with those who are willing to help him.

And no sooner did this week begin than Plan A went into effect.

Per the Trump Administration, the daily death toll from COVID-19 is now predicted to double by next month.  To be precised, about 3,000 daily.

And what is the Trump plan for dealing with this doubling?

There is no plan, as it turns out.  According to the "President," we are supposed to think of ourselves as warriors, drafted into a war we are losing, and one that was launched in no small part through his own negligence.

And is our Commander-in-Chief going to give us any supplies in order to fight this war?  Doesn't look like it.  At a moment in our history when health care for everyone has been more essential than ever, he's still putting in a full-scale effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  Oh, I'm sorry; that's repeal and replace it with "I can't tell you until I'm re-elected, but it'll be some time after I show you my tax returns."  That, of course, is Trumpspeak for "never."  Even his own Attorney General, whose disbarment proceedings can't begin fast enough, had enough political sense to suggest to Trump that getting rid of the ACA right now shouldn't be a priority.  Trump, for once, ignored him.  Unsurprising again, especially coming from a man who refuses to even help pay for burying the dead, and forcing states like New York to make grim use of places like Hart Island.

Equally unsurprising, the rest of his party is no better.  Congressional Democrats are calling to stop using federal bailout money to comfort the comfortable, and redirect it to ending the affliction of the afflicted.  So what do we get?  Mitch McCONnell, calling the Senate back into session for the sole purpose of confirming Trump's rancid political appointees, and even more rancid judicial nominations.  (If it's any consolation, this week brought a thin ray of hope that something might be done to push back against the latter.)

And don't expect any help from Republicans at the state level.  With a few notable exceptions, their message is clear:  either go to work for employers who will not be required to protect you from death, or starve. In fact, the entire party has, for all practical purposes, been effectively Nazified, a process that has been taking place in earnest for several decades, and has finally reached the point at which its elected officials are cheerfully calling on those who don't vote for them to drop dead, so that the Dow Jones industrial average can continue to set new records.  This Daily Kos piece describes that process in detail, and I strongly recommend that you take some time to look at it.  At the same time, you can see two examples of how far along in the process we are:  law enforcement is openly disrespected, and Ku Klux Klanners feel free to announce themselves in your local grocery store.

Perhaps worst of all, Trump is taking his political cues from the evangelical Christian community, which has no political vision for the world as a whole beyond being raptured off of it, and leaving everyone else to suffer.  As a consequence, they believe any efforts to preserve and enhance life on this planet are essentially contrary to the will of God; good Christians, in this formulation, strive to accelerate the apocalypic timetable for their benefit, even though Jesus himself said that "no one knows the hour or the place"  (Full disclosure:  as a former evangelical, I know what I'm talking about.  So does the author of this Mother Jones article.)  This, of course, makes their anti-abortion advocacy even more hypocritical than it would be otherwise, but I'll save that topic for another day.

How does Trump himself sum up, for public consumption, this sorry state of affairs?  By focusing on himself, of course.  And doing it in a fairly spectacular way, one that, apparently, involved pulling a few strings.

He had the audacity to be interviewed at the feet of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, and compare himself to Honest Abe, in terms of suffering.  Lincoln himself, were he in a position to do so, would respectfully beg to differ.  As it was, when I saw footage of the moment in which Trump made the comparison, I half hoped for the statue to reveal that it had laser eyes and zap Diaper Donnie out of our misery, while saying "You want suffering?  I'll show you suffering."

But no.  It's up to all of us to get out of this mess, with G-d's blessing and help.  And what a mess it is.

We're in the grip of a suicide cult.  I hope and pray that we can get out of it after November.