The President Who Stole Christmas

By Brigitte L. Nacos

There will not be a Merry Christmas this year. Not in the United States of America.

Every day is now more deadly than were the horrific attacks of 9/11. Every day now, more than 3,000 Americans die as result of the Covid-19 pandemic. So far, more than 311,000 have succumbed to the illness. To put it differently, America has suffered the equivalent of 104 deadly 9/11 attacks!

Every day now, public health experts tell us that grimmer times are still to come. This morning’s heart-wrenching projection was a likely death toll of more 560,000 coronavirus victims in the U.S. by April 1, 2021.

And, yet, there is no public outcry, no public mourning. The most visible public activism is displayed by those who falsely claim to act in defense of their individual liberty and fight against mitigating health measures.

104times 9/11 in terms of lost souls seems less of a national nightmare than 9/11, when a divided nation united behind a crisis-managing president and consoler-in-chief, George W. Bush. Most embraced the notion, “Now, we are not Democrats or Republicans—we all are all Americans.”

There is no such spirit of unity and togetherness now. Just the opposite.

Unlike previous presidents, Donald Trump has not even tried to unite the country and discharge his most important duty: protecting the lives of Americans.

Instead, he denied, minimized, and completely ignored the most serious health crisis in a century at various stages. He called Covid-19 a political hoax, discredited and acted personally contrary to health experts’ mitigating guidelines, and cued his supporters to follow his dangerous words and deeds. Instead of listening to the best public health experts in the White House Covid-19 Advisory Board, Trump and his coterie sided the quackery of unqualified voices that advocated the debunked herd-immunity thesis.

As the first vaccine became available, the cheer leaders of one-term President suggested to name it “Trump Vaccine” in honor to all the good their hero has done to defeat Covid-19.

Instead, this catastrophic health saga will be remembered as the “Trump Virus” because the 45^th president knew early on how deadly this virus was and is but refused to take any mitigating actions to minimize the spread of the coronavirus.

To be sure, even if strict measures were implemented early on, Covid-19 would have taken many lives here as it did in other countries.

But this president’s complete failure of acting decisively in concert with sound scientific advice cost according to public health experts many, many more lives—probably hundreds of thousands! And many more will die in the weeks and months ahead.

No, there will not be Christmas as we know it in America. The man who stole it is President Donald Trump.

He stole it from those more than 310, 000 dead fellow-Americans and those close to them.

He stole it from those who lost their jobs and their small businesses.

He stole it from those who stand in long lines at food banks and soup kitchens.

He stole it from those children whose families face eviction from their apartments.

He stole it from Americans who seem strangely fatalistic in the face of an unspeakable crisis.

And, unlike the Grinch who stole Christmas in the famous cartoon, the man who stole this upcoming holiday in our real lives will not change his heart and mind.

Comments

[Kevin]

Sad situation, no doubt. As a Canadian, I believe postponing the election for one year due to COVID 19, would have been the prudent thing to do, politically, economically, and holistically. (This would have enabled POTUS to focus on his job and not worry about his re-election prospects - It's the pandemic, stupid.)Critics argue that America had an election during the Civil War. Yes, but in 2020 we have grown, hopefully, since tin hats and pitch-forks. A power - sharing deal could??? have been worked out with the Democrats for one year or lo and behold - a 3rd Party funded by Americans to strengthen democracy can be entrenched in your political system. No need to bang the drum; POTUS is almost toast.

[Brigitte Nacos]

Yes, nearly half of the American population bought into Trump's crazy cult--although he hurts his followers just as much as his opponents.
And we have not seen the end of it as the latest tweets of Dear Leader reveal.
He will not go silently into the ex-presidency; he will cause still more damage than he has inflicted on this nation already.
Yes, God bless America but more importantly, God save America!

[Gerhard Schoepke]

One of the greatest truth i have read in the past.

But the sad truth is,too many Americans will not believe it

[Hugh Sims]

Right on.

[Helga Hormozdi]

Well done, I hope this is read by millions of US citizens.
Very sad Xmas season. It will not change soon, Mr Trump knowingly
created this to be our Xmas present, he obviously rejoices as he does not address this situation.