The definition of insanity

QUESTION - would you rehire a police officer you previously fired for doing his job so recklessly, that the people he was supposed to serve and protect, were instead seriously hurt?

Or even died?

Of course not!

And would you rehire that police officer if he boasted during his job interview with you that if hired again, he would be even more reckless and untrustworthy than he was the first time?

No? Then why are we trying so hard to re-elect Donald Trump as president of the United States?

This man ran the table in almost every primary he’s been in so far, and he certainly cleaned up during the multi-state Super Tuesday contests. Poor Nikki Haley hung onto what little electoral credibility she had left because she couldn’t stop Donald Trump from being nominated to get his old job back.

But the fact of the matter it was never up to her to stop him.

It was up to us.

You’d think that after that disastrous first and only Trump term, the nation’s collective memory would come rushing back like a midnight tidal wave about all of the pain and suffering he caused while in office.

But apparently we’ve forgotten.

No, I’m not talking about how he allegedly colluded with the Russians to undermine our electoral system.

And no, I’m not referring to the shame and disgrace Trump brought us on the world stage with his racism, sexism and dishonesty, or how he tried to overthrow his own country like some cheap, pathetic Third World dictator.

I’m talking about his disgraceful behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, and how over 402,000 Americans died because Donald Trump never saw fit to do his job as commander-in-chief properly.

Never saw fit to do everything in his power to “ protect and defend” the nation he was elected president of once the coronavirus reached our shores.

Yes, I know that’s a serious charge. I really want to say that he murdered over 402,000 Americans, but “murdered” is a legal term that one should not use unless deemed appropriate by a court of law.

But there can be no doubt that Trump and his deliberate negligence is responsible for most of those American deaths. And while people who had no idea what hit them died, Trump engaged in a deadly game of coverup, denial, and misdirection. All to protect himself and his legacy.

Why would any of us want this kind of deceitful monster back in the White House, when he has proven to us repeatedly that he’s not interested in serving us, but serving himself?

“To protect and defend.” It’s right there in the presidential oath of office that Trump took with his fingers crossed behind his back in January 2017.And after he became president, Trump began doing the very things that would cost American lives:

- In May 2018, he disbanded the White House pandemic response team, leaving us defenseless and without a plan of action in case of.

- In Jan. 2020, after the rest of the world was dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump stood up and assured, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

- Later that same month, he said, “Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.” But by this time, Trump had already privately told journalist Bob Woodward that COVID-19 is “deadly stuff.” So he knew, but refused to act appropriately in public.

- Again in February 2020, Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary was warned in a Congressional hearing that “The ineptness with which the Trump Administration approached this problem is not only serious, it can be deadly if not changed in the approach.” By now there are reports of mask, test and hospital bed shortages nationwide as cases compound.

- In March 2020, Trump said he’s not concerned at all, and the risk is “very, very low.” He tried to convince Americans to go back to work by Easter.

Trump added, “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.”

- By December 2020, the U.S. death toll passed 340,000, with almost 20 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. By the time Trump actually left office on January 20th, 2021, there were 25 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, with over 400,000 that resulted in death.

“Everything about how it’s been managed has been infused with incompetence and dishonesty, and we’re paying a heavy price,” Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University told the Associated Press in January 2021.

How do you rehire somebody like that for the most important office on Earth?

Oh, many of Trump’s defenders say, “What about the speed with which the scientific research community developed vaccines to protect against COVID-19 on Trump’s watch?

Actually, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), “Years BEFORE the COVID-19 pandemic began, experts at the NIH Vaccine Research Center (VRC) were studying coronaviruses to find out how to protect against them. The scientists chose to focus on one “prototype” coronavirus and create a vaccine for it.”

So NIH researchers were preparing for a possible coronavirus outbreak long before Trump could even spell the word. They just accelerated their work once the pandemic hit, and had vaccines at the ready as soon as they could, thank GOD!

Today, many of us are having big fun picking on President Joe Biden because clearly, at age 81, he’s slowing down, doesn’t have the mental acuity he once had, and forgets things. But at least Joe still has the spirit, guts and commitment to do the job right. Plus he has enough skilled people around him to make sure he’s operating in the proper direction.

What’s our excuse for forgetting about disastrous Donald Trump?

Many of us are nowhere near as old as Joe Biden, and we’ve undeniably forgotten the last four years, and how we had to survive the pandemic with absolutely no principled leadership we could count on from the White House to protect us and our families until Biden came in.

We had to count on a dedicated medical community, news media, and local elected officials to see us through, and even then, many of us refused to listen to facts and sound protective instruction.

After that torturous experience, you’d think we would have learned that something as all-encompassing as a pandemic could happen to us at anytime, for any reason, all over again. Outside of all of the other safety mechanisms we boast of having, you’d think that having committed, unselfish and uncompromising leadership at the very top of our government, making sure that the nation’s resources are properly directed to where needed, when needed, to protect the most vulnerable citizens possible, would be our collective priority from now on.

But instead, many of us are seriously devoted to putting that maniac back in office, knowing not only that he can’t handle the job, but he doesn’t want to handle it properly.

Oh, how I wish NC Governor Roy Cooper was running for president right now. His handling of the coronavirus pandemic here in North Carolina was masterful given the circumstances, and there is no question in my mind that Cooper saved lives.  

That’s how you measure leadership - by the lives saved and protected in a crisis.

The same can never be said about Donald Trump, and the disgraceful way his negligent actions during the pandemic led to the preventable deaths of over 402,000 people.

If only the dead could speak, and their loved ones could cry out in a collective voice. Maybe then we would come to our senses.

So in this case, the definition of insanity, in my opinion, is trying hard to elect the same sick, selfish psychopath to the presidency again, and expecting any difference from what we got from him when we elected him the first time.

Yeah, we MUST be crazy!