It Is What It Is

 Of all the things Donald Trump has said and done as President, this really sums up his attitude toward his job and the American people he was elected to serve. And he's done and said a lot of troubling things:

- "Good people on both sides" at Charlottesville, after a white supremacist plowed his car into a group of peaceful protesters, killing one;

- Calling for boycotts of great American companies like Harley-Davidson and, this week, Goodyear;

- Quietly acquiescing to the Russian government putting bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan;

- Openly claiming that if he loses the 2020 election, it will be because it was "rigged";

- Telling the Gold Star widow of a US soldier killed in Niger that "he knew what he signed up for."

Many of you can add to that list, no doubt.

But "It Is What It Is" signals unconditional surrender. The declaratory statement says that we don't know what to do, we don't care to seriously investigate what to do, and even if we knew what to do, it's not worth the effort to try it. It tells the families of the 170,000-plus who have died from COVID-19 over the past 7 months that they simply are the victims of a fate for which we can do nothing. It is worse than a simple failure of leadership. It is the complete and utter absence of any capacity for empathy, which is prerequisite to being a leader.

We have had corrupt Presidents in our history. We have had inept Presidents in our history. We have had clueless, in over their heads Presidents in our history. We have had Presidents whose policies and agenda I vehemently opposed. But we have never, at least in my lifetime, had a President so completely devoid of concern for the well-being of the American people, or some basic acknowledgement of the nation's founding principles and governing documents.

It is what it is. But it doesn't have to be that way. We The People have the opportunity to demand better from our leaders on November 3. Vote like the future of the Republic depends on it, because it does. Vote like our lives depend on it, because they do. 

The Month of Despair

Here are some notable August headlines from my memory 

• August 7, 1964, LBJ signed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution
• August 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of Watergate
• August 2, 1990, the Iraqi Army invaded Kuwait, triggering the first Gulf War
• August 3, 2019, 31 people killed and 51 people wounded in separate shootings, one at a bar in Dayton, OH, and another at a WalMart in El Paso, TX

And the headlines so far this month (from the New York Times)?

• August 1, Trump's Attacks on Mail Service Sow Voting Fears
• August 2, Brief Reprieve, Then the Virus Charges Back
• August 3, Scientists Fret as White House Rushes Vaccine
• August 4, Lessons from Hasty School Reopenings
• August 5, Blasts Rock Beirut, Killing Dozens and Wounding Thousands
• August 6, US Examines Nuclear Goals of the Saudis
• August 7, The Unique US Failure to Control the Virus
• August 8, Russia Continues Interfering in Election to Try to Help Trump, US Intelligence Says
• August 9, Without $600 Weekly Benefit, Unemployed Face Bleak Choices
• August 10, Trump's Orders on Coronavirus Relief Create Confusion

Americans became somewhat serious about COVID-19 in mid-March, when the NBA, closely followed by other professional sports, shut down its season. I say somewhat serious, because even then there were those who denied the danger posed by the virus, led by the Denier-in-Chief. Five months and 160,000 dead Americans later, and there are those who still refuse to take the pandemic seriously. 

By now, every one of us knows someone who has fallen victim to COVID-19. Even with that personal loss, too many apparently believe that it was "their time," that "God's will" controls, that "he or she was old, anyway." The disease won't affect me, because I'm in my prime and healthy and invincible. 

So let's not worry about school kids, because "they don't get sick." And the teachers I guess are easily replaceable, interchangeable cogs in the machine that parents too often see as babysitting so mom and dad can go to work.

Let's not concern ourselves with the waitress or the barista or the personal trainer or the retail store clerk or the supermarket shelf stocker. After all, their job is to take care of me, and I might humble myself so much as to get through a meal without complaining about something, and might be so generous as to leave a bit of spare change as a tip. And if that restaurant has to close, well it's their fault to not have a "real job" with benefits and paid time off, so why should the rest of us do anything to take care of these freeloaders? If they can't pay rent, let them live on the streets.

And on top of that despair, we see Trump ramping up his attacks on the very heart of our constitutional Democratic Republic. He'll slow down the mail to create chaos for the November elections. He'll ignore science in favor of magic potions and wishful thinking. He'll seek help from anyone, including our foreign enemies, to help him win an election. And he'll ignore the separation of powers, trying to grab the headlines with his unconstitutional and ill-conceived orders. 

All while Americans die from the coronavirus at the rate of 1,000 per day.