He said, “with this senator, enough is never enough.” And he was right, but then again, his idea of enough differs quite a lot from hers, or mine, for that matter.
The senator was Elizabeth Warren and he was Michael Bloomberg and she had just taken him down one more time for not releasing some women on his staff from the nondisclosure agreements that they had been forced to sign.
The two candidates were on the debate stage together and clearly his answers were not good enough for anyone, especially not for an “uppity” woman like Liz. He would never have spoken those words about a male senator. No, they were reserved for those beneath his billionaire white man status, such as pushy women who are too demanding, or who speak too loudly, or are just too darn smart for their own good.
Come January 2021, there will not be a President Warren moving into the White House and that is a loss for us all, whether you believe it or not. Sen. Warren ended her campaign this past week and so ended our chance to have a smart, knowledgeable, honest, ethical, compassionate, articulate person, who just happens to be a woman, be our president for the next four years.
Instead, it will be business as usual — a man will win the election. The question now is which man?
The man sitting in the White House now is the most shocking antithesis of Elizabeth Warren. This president seems to be more concerned with getting reelected than with the lives of his constituents. He made it quite clear that he would prefer that the 3,500 people remain stranded on the Grand Princess cruise ship that had been sitting off the coast of California, rather than allow them to come ashore. His reasoning, if you can call it that, had to do with keeping the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus on U.S. soil as low as possible, of course for political reasons.
We are under an existential threat as this virus spreads around the world. Not that we haven’t already been under one for the last three-plus years. But now as cases of this dangerous virus are springing up across our nation, I ask myself, who do I want in the White House to make the decisions that have the power to save or to lose hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives?
In a heartbeat, I’d choose Elizabeth Warren, not the self-described “stable genius” in charge now. Just last week after visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters, the president’s remarks show just how out of touch and self-absorbed he is.
“As of right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test (can have one), that’s the important thing, and the tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect, the transcription was perfect,” he proclaimed.
Trump was referring, of course, to the doctored transcription of his phone call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that got him impeached. And that has what to do with test kits for the coronavirus?
His claim about test kits was not even true (there’s a surprise), as there has been a major shortage. And the first set of CDC-produced kits were far from perfect, which has contributed to the shortfall. How can we know how bad this infection is and how far it has spread if we aren’t testing large numbers of people? This is not how you contain an epidemic.
The president went on to say, “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors say, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should’ve done that instead of running for president.”
Oh my, how I wish. But wait, would I really want to unleash a Dr. Trump on an unsuspecting population? Never, but try to imagine him getting through medical school — not a chance.
Is there anything at all reassuring about what he said? We have a dangerous virus that surpassed 600 cases nationally on Monday, a stock market tanking toward bear territory and a likely recession on the horizon, and this is all he can think to say?
It’s simply the talk of a crazy person who obviously heard nothing that was said to him, nor does he seem to care. It’s all about him, always, just about him.
The president’s own administration spent Sunday warning of the dangers of the virus, but on Monday he was busy “comparing it to the common flu, in a tweet that appeared to ignore the advice of public health experts.”
Wouldn’t you rather hear something like this from your president? “I have just spent several hours consulting with the heads of our health agencies, and they have shared with me the seriousness of our current crisis. Yes, there is a shortage of test kits, and we are doing everything we can to produce more. The virus appears to be spreading across the country, but we are going to spend and do whatever it takes to get this thing under control. My heart goes out to all who are suffering, to those who are sick and to those who have lost loved ones.”
I can imagine Elizabeth saying those words and I know I would be reassured that though we are in danger, she would focus her laser-like attention on doing everything in her power to make it better. Most importantly, when she speaks to the nation, I would know that she is speaking the truth.
Sadly, Elizabeth will not be our president. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have infinitely better than what we currently have in the White House. Whether it’s Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden who wins the Democratic nomination, please, do whatever you can to support him. And, of course, register and vote.
Karen Gardner of Haydenville, can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.