When I watched Trump’s first comments downplaying, if not dismissing, the coronavirus, I couldn’t help but remember then president George Bush peering down from Air Force 1 on the hurricane devastated city of New Orleans. That optic sent Bush’s popularity plummeting not only because of his seeming indifference and detachment. It also suggested an incompetence in the face of a human crisis of extraordinary proportions.
The same is on display in Trump’s gross (mis)handling of the coronavirus and it could undo him. Time will tell. But, of course, the much larger issue is to what degree will his incompetence, ignorance, and lying exact needless suffering and death from people here as well as worldwide.
Written by
Sam Webb
I'm a long-time socialist and activist, but new to the blogging world. I hope to bring a different perspective on politics, sports, culture, and Marxism. Besides blogging, I also leave plenty of time for swimming, hiking, ESPN, music, reading, drinking good beer, and, not least, my family and friends. I wish I could play basketball, but my knees ruled out that possibility long ago.
While I currently reside in New York, my politically formative years were spent in Portland, Me. and Detroit during the 1970s and 1980s. I graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (where I played basketball) and received a MA in economics from the University of Connecticut.
I was the national chairperson of the Communist Party, USA from 2000 until 2014 when I stepped down at the convention. In 2016 I resigned from the Communist Party two years later. We were no longer on the same page.
