If you want proof that Donald Trump is an idiot, I don't think you have to look any further than his response to the coronavirus crisis in this election year. I can't believe I'm saying this, but thanks to his bizarrely dysfunctional steering of the ship, it's not impossible that he could actually blow it and lose to Sleepy, Creepy Joe Biden! Can you imagine the difference to his favorability and chances for re-election if instead of being his best The Donald -- i.e., an incompetent, weak baby whose one trick is to appeal to the die-hard white supremacist ingrained by our culture in people of all walks of life-- he or someone influential to him had seen the incredible opportunity opened up to him by the jackpot of a crisis he could have nailed but for his narcissistic obtuseness and acute (if well-placed) inferiority complex. What if someone on his team had seized this moment for greatness-- what if with the bottomless stores of treasure that he and his vultures diverted to the pockets of his billionaire enablers, he instead had mobilized industry to produce the ventilators and protective equipment urgently needed by those tasked with caring for the virus’s victims, pushed through a universal basic income to see people through, decreed an open-ended implementation of single payer healthcare and medical leave on the government's dime to see that isolation was easy for people and that those who fall ill would be able to seek treatment so that society could manage the spread.
He could do this to benefit himself in the form of votes, approval and genuine adulation on the part of Americans and a place of honor in the history books. Congress would leap at a chance to support a president being unexpectedly presidential. His own gain would coincide with lives improving for an America eroded by 40 years of trickle down neoliberalism. In consequence, his actions would result in a gush-up boost to the economy from the beneficiaries of his largesse, the isolated masses adequately supplied with cash for survival. His detractors on the left wouldn’t know what hit them until they got what they wanted. As for his reactionary base, it would be a test of his proposition that he could shoot someone in the face on 5th Avenue and his fans would still love him. I think he would pass the test.
He wouldn’t do this though, even though by doing it he would sail to victory on a tidal wave of approval from Americans thirsting for a new and better age who would flock in gratitude for bold, new leadership away from their tepid reactionary acquiescence to entreaties to support the alternative. As surprisingly sure-fire as this tack would prove for the Republican incumbent, I don't think the Democrats need fear that they will be out-lefted by the right (which sadly would be the only thing that would ever inspire them to scramble to reclaim their leftist credentials). This level of meaningful subterfuge is not a job for Mr Trump Steaks. It's not the subversive nature of it that makes it an unlikely re-election strategy for Trump. His whole thing is subversion of the office of the presidency after all. Rather it's the possibility that it could actually be a good thing for the marks.
The mark of a true criminal is that their success is measured by the degree of pain they inflict upon others. If the best con in the world results in the easing of pain for strangers you’re not trying hard enough at your criminality.
Alas.
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