By Edwin Cooney
While talking with my friend “Dodger David” the other day, I discovered what could be a major distraction, rather than an issue, which could affect the outcome of the 2020 election.
Dodger David, despite his “second class” baseball taste, is a really fine fellow. He's good tempered, thoughtful, and generous, and I like him very, very much! However, in this instance, he confuses methodology with principle — and he's far from being alone. Here’s what I mean!
Dodger David finds little fault with the president's contempt for social distancing. However, he took an accusatory tone when he wondered out loud why protestors against the president, the police and Confederate
monuments weren't showing adequate social distancing during their public meetings. Through such wondering, Dodger David reduced the four major issues concerning all of us to a single question. Which group of Americans, supporters of the president or those protesting the president, is most responsible for spreading COVID-19? As I see it, herein lies that potentially serious social and political distraction. It's equivalent to something parents hear all the time when their kids are arguing with each other: "He started it!" The significant issue is how to handle the virus, not who started it! If the issue becomes who started and who's spreading COVID-19, we are arguing over the effect rather than putting maximum pressure on those who could rid us of it, thus making discussion of the whole issue pointless rather than substantive.
The number one issue facing the American voter this November is how we can most effectively halt or ultimately cure and prevent COVID-19.
The second issue has to do with the necessity of bringing about social justice in the wake of the documentation on everyone's smart phone that racial justice on the part of too many police departments across the country just doesn't exist. This documented lack of equal justice raises the question as to why it doesn’t exist after 244 years of freedom and justice (supposedly) for all. The answer lies in this question: what have we been celebrating all these decades since the end of the Civil War? Who have we been celebrating? The answer to that is our celebration of Confederate generals, and even Confederate culture. Additionally, we've ignored Confederate treason.
The third major issue, and perhaps the most urgent one, has to do with climate change. If we insist that we love our children and grandchildren, how can we afford to ignore this issue?
A fourth major issue is President Trump himself. As it was said by Franklin Delano Roosevelt that the 1936 presidential election was about him, President Trump likewise believes that this election is about him. For both better and worse we chose FDR over Governor Alfred Landon of Kansas in 1936.
The question therefore is can we live with the worse aspects of President Trump for another term as we lived with the worse aspects of FDR in 1936? The fundamental difference between the two incumbent presidential candidates is simple. The 1936 election may have been mostly about FDR but, unlike President Trump, FDR was clearly and historically about you and me rather than about himself!
If you're a Conservative, remember that despite Ronald Reagan's ideological differences with Roosevelt's legacy, it was FDR he quoted most and who he not so secretly admired.
A few weeks ago, I suggested that President Trump would be more effective as a leader if he were to ask every American to become a soldier in the fight against COVID-19 in the tradition of Lincoln during the Civil War, Wilson during World War I, FDR and Truman during World War II and even LBJ during the Vietnam conflict. Traditionally, Americans have responded overwhelmingly to such a presidential call at least at the outset of such a major crisis. In late 1979 and early 1980, Jimmy Carter, unpopular as he was at the time, had the support of most Americans following the taking of 53 of our diplomats and military personnel as hostages at the American Embassy in Tehran.
Rather than appealing to the best in us, President Trump has spent most of his time labeling and name calling, blaming and ridiculing, attacking the motives of state governors, suggesting that COVID-19 was manufactured to embarrass him and his administration during an election year and, worst of all, contradicting or minimizing the advice of his official COVID-19 advisors about the significance and strength of the disease. Even worse, time and time again he exposes some of his most loyal supporters and their friends and families to possible infection by the Coronavirus. In this way, he treats his supporters and opponents with the same contempt. For the very first time in our history, an American president is clearly more interested in his own well-being than he is about "the state of the nation."
Above I suggested that a debate over whether President Trump's behavior or the behavior of demonstrators is merely a debate over methodology rather than over the substance of the next election. The danger is that as often as not, an effective distraction can prevail.
Despite the issues I've outlined above, the person of Donald John Trump may well be the most vital issue this November. Ultimately, I believe if President Trump isn't re-elected, he will have been defeated by who he is — thereby trumping what he currently is!
Standing in the East Room of the White House addressing a roomful of his supporters on the morning of August 9th, 1974, Mr. Nixon's final words included this sentiment:
"Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty. Always remember that others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. Then, you destroy yourself!"
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY