COVID 19 has given us a litmus test for patriotism. I usually avoid the terms patriot, patriotic, and patriotism. As they are commonly used in the United States, these words are meaningless, and when used by neo-nazi factions and political figures they are toxic.
Even so, I will make use of these terms to argue that COVID19 has shown that Trump and his followers, contrary to their abundant pretensions, are not patriots. COVID19 was the greatest danger to the security of the American people. Though Trump knew the danger, he kept knowledge of it secret through the time when he should have been preparing the government and the country to deal with it. Once the gravity of the threat of the plague became obvious, he kept on making light of COVID19 and tried to ridicule and subvert the authority of competent people. His unpresidential, unpatriotic behavior made our country far more vulnerable to the disease and contributed significantly to the deaths of some 589,000 and the infection of 33.1 million Americans.
Of course, Trump’s attitude and behavior instantly became the model for his devotees among the people. Hence came the anti-maskers who considered refusal to wear a mask to be a sign of solidarity with Trump. Prudent closure by public health authorities of places where people gather and spend money was greeted with outrage, indignation, and contempt for law by ordinary people and by business people and by pandering politicians who would put their fellow citizens’ health and lives at risk to protect the cashflow. Citizens who refuse to protect themselves and their countrymen, who set their own convenience before the general welfare, and place profit before citizenship are not patriots.
Next, when an effective vaccine became available, the lack of urgency and the dismissive attitude of Trump and his spokespersons towards the vaccine made refusal to receive the vaccine another pro-Trump gesture. To Trump’s base we must add the many others who are refusing the vaccine, some because of eccentric reservations, some because of fears that no one thought to allay, some because they are simply too idle to go and receive the vaccine. The delusions and selfishness of these people are preventing or, at least, postponing their country’s recovery from COVID19.
The struggle against COVID19 would have been far more successful if the President had not chosen to make light of the country’s peril and ridicule efforts to contain it. If he had stepped up as a model and advocate for all the public health measures against the disease, the damage done our country by COVID19 would have been dramatically reduced. But he chose to minimize and dismiss the disaster caused by his own grievous irresponsibility and became a major obstacle to the containing of COVID19. Trump’s unwillingness to do his duty as President put our country at serious risk. His example gave rise to mindless resistance to efforts to contain the disease. He and his followers are one of the main causes of the medical disaster we are witnessing.
And the medical disaster is not the only harm done to America by the behavior and demeanor of Trump and his followers. Americans’ vulnerability to demagoguery, their inability to communicate and collaborate, and their stubborn refusal to comply with government regulation and counsel have exposed to friends and foes the immaturity, selfishness, lack of civic values, and even rebelliousness of a large part of the American people. We are living with the consequences of stupid, self-righteous individualism, willful ignorance, and the almost universal assumption that liberty means license. These have corrupted our character and made us enemies of one another.