Opinion

Thanks, Donald, for reminding us of 2020

The Opinion of this writer does not represent the opinion of the Ridgeview News

Trump’s Question of the Week, yelling in all caps:                      

ARE YOU BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE FOUR YEARS AGO?

Hell, yes.  But I hear Trump followers, calling from the bottom of the Memory Hole: “No, it’s awful now, we had a strong leader, the economy was good, my groceries were cheaper.”  

Trump’s presidency was a strongman show, strutting around, talking big, and taking photo ops, sending love letters, and holding secret meetings with Xi, Kim Jong Un, and Putin.  Now he’s told Putin and Netanyahu to do what they please with Ukraine, Europe, and Gaza.  Trump’s never been more than a puppet.

Was the economy good?  Were we wealthier?  Until early 2020, the Obama economy cruised along carrying Trump for his first three years, with low inflation, low interest rates, low unemployment, and a rising stock market.  Selective memories seem to be focused there.

As soon as the fake strongman faced a real crisis, he crumpledlike a paper doll.   Ah, yes, March 2020.   The World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic.  The Dow dropped19% or almost 5000 points. Store shelves were empty. Broadway and Disneyland were shuttered.  20.5 million jobs were lost in April alone.  

By the end of 2020, GDP was negative 5.1%, unemployment was 6.3%, the federal debt rose from $14 to $21 trillion, illegal immigration increased, the US murder rate rose to the highest level since 1997, and the international trade deficit (that Trump promised to reduce) increased 40.5%.

Were we healthier? In March 2020, there were 121,653 confirmed Covid cases.  Medical personnel did not have enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).  Individuals were making masks and donating rubber gloves.  Doctors were wearing trash bags.  Refrigerator trucks served as overflow morgues.

Faced with an actual crisis rather than playing a strongman on TV, Trump blustered and blabbered. “We have it totally under control,” he said. He refused to wear a mask himself because it made him look weak.  Mask wearing, he said, “Somehow, I don’t see it for myself.”

Trump refused any responsibility.  “No one could have seen this coming.”  “It came out of nowhere.”  In 2018, Trumpdismantled the National Security Council pandemic directorate.  “I don’t take responsibility at all,” Trump said.

Trump refused to use the federal government to ramp up PPE production, “The federal government’s not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping,” Trump said. “You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.

Instead of listening to doctors, scientists and the CDC, Trump played Dr. Quack, prescribing hydroxychloroquine andchloroquine, suggesting injecting bleach, and hitting the body with “very powerful light.”  He was a shill for anti-science.

Trump’s inability to lead created an excess of 461,100 Covid deaths.  Almost a half million people need not have died if Trump had thought less about how he could look strong and more about how he could help the country.

As a side note and a sop to his evangelical voters, Trump appointed 3 conservative Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v Wade, depriving American women of the right to pregnancy-related health care, control of their own bodies, and reproductive freedom.

Were we safer? By mid-2020, Trump knew that his response to the pandemic was rapidly undermining his re-election chances.  In August, he began warning, “The only way we’re going to lose this election is if this election is rigged.” There was a steady drumbeat of rigged election claims right through election night when he declared, “This is a fraud on the American public.Frankly, we did win this election. We want all voting to stop.” 

Trump’s claims about “massive election fraud,” repeated by Republican lawmakers and amplified by right-wing media incited the violence of white supremacist extremists.  The “very fine people” Trump had told to “Stand Back and Stand By” were ready to roll. “Big protest in DC on January 6th.  Be there, will be wild!”

Trump’s troops stormed the Capitol and tried to take down our democracy.

FAST FORWARD TO 2024 – Under President Biden, the economy has healed.  Nearly 15 million jobs have been added. Unemployment is 3.9%.  The GDP increased 2.5% in 2023.  420,000 manufacturing jobs have been added.  The stock markets are at records highs; the S&P 500 is up 34% since Biden took office.

Yes, your groceries cost more, but if Trump were president, your groceries would still cost more – it’s a world-wide problem.  Good news – under Biden, wages are rising faster than inflation.

There was one triumph in November 2020We elected Joe Biden by 7 million votes, 52.4% to 46.9%, with a clear electoral college majority.  

Yet somehow, 4 years later, Trump is still with us. Like a plague, he is a pall hanging over our democracy.  30% of Americans believe the lie that Trump won in 2020.  You can’t work for the RNC unless you spout the lie.  Elections are fake.  Only Trump can win.

Millions of Trump followers are now willing to undertake, support, or excuse political violence.  Death threats to election workers, judges, and politicians increase whenever Trump is mentioned..  

The Trump Party (TP) struggles to control the House of Representatives and impede our elected government at every turn.

Are we better off than we were in 2020?  The year Donald Trump organized the overthrow of our democracy?  And began his anti-democratic march to finish the job?  That year?  

Say No to political violence, No to a second term.  Say yes to democracy, yes to free and fair elections, Yes to Biden/Harris2024.  We must never let Trump back in the White House.m

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