Me, me, me.
Not us. Definitely not us.
It had been my hope with my writing here to try and keep politics out of it. But then President Trump done went and began making it clear this week that he values money (not that this is a shock) more than human life. His reelection more than human life. A solid stock market more than human life. Last night, he said he didn’t believe that hospitals were going to need the ventilators and other supplies they’ve essentially begun begging for.
I’ve had a lot of different movie lines rolling around in my noggin this week as a result of his statements this week. The headline refers to a line from “The Matrix Reloaded” where hundreds of Agent Smiths are attacking Neo. I imagine this is how President Trump feels when someone asks him, well, anything. How does this affect me?
Unfortunately, we’ve never less needed to return to the Me Generation than we do right now.
“How do you have patience for people who claim they love America, but clearly can’t stand Americans?” — Sydney Ellen Wade
As I listened to one of the daily press conferences President Trump hosts that took place earlier this week, this line from “The American President” came screaming to the forefront of my mind. And then again as I read stories from the Washington Post and New York Times about the severity of the health issue in big cities, but also the shortage of supplies. It was truly tear-jerking.
President Trump has been one of the most successful politicians of my life in making people he believe that he loves America. America is gonna do so much winning. Things will be tremendous and perfect and beautiful. Occasionally, he does ridiculous things like hug the flag at a speech. And evidently, a large swath of my fellow voters believes him. And evidently, a large swath of my fellow voters never heard the old axiom “actions speak louder than words.”
This latest nonsense has never laid barer how much President Trump truly hates Americans. He loves America and the way that it’s allowed him to enrich himself with little to no responsibility. He loves America in the way it’s allowed him to display his narcissism to a world stage.
But turn after turn, time after time, he’s demonstrated that his affection for the lion’s share of Americans extends only so far as they are unintelligent enough to vote for him. After that, Donald Trump only cares about his small coterie of other robber barons whom he can help enrich. If you’re an American who thinks Donald Trump really cares about you, I’d like to know what color the sky is in your fantasy world.
Because decisions to deny ventilators will kill thousands of people. Decisions to not compel companies to produce said ventilators will kill thousands of people. Decisions to not take COVID-19 seriously have already killed thousands and who knows where the damage will end?
