[Note: Some of my posts go live on autopilot and I’m not right there to manage things. I may not approve your comments within the first few hours. Don’t sweat it. The computer never forgets and I’ll approve as soon as I’m back.]
I tried to follow the debates and it was hard; because they weren’t about real things. Biden was on a roll. He’d prepared for this moment. Talking about COVID he said: “I laid out back in March, exactly what we should be doing. And I laid out again in July, what we should be doing. We should be providing all the protective gear possible. We should be providing the money…”
Hm… PPE gear and money. Um, like masks? Like the ones I can buy on Etsy with a whimsical dinosaur motif? Or ventilators… like we’ve got stacked, new and unused, in warehouses? Or like that big impressive hospital boat that docked in New York City that was never used? Or was it all about money; like the check I cashed a few months ago?
Whenever Biden touched on anything reality based it felt like it was already done. Fretting over stacks of masks and gallons of hand sanitizer seems like something from “flatten the curve” six months ago… which really happened. We. Really. Did. “Flatten”. The. Curve. For the most part, we handled a tragic peak of deaths and we’re around 25% of the deaths at the frightening peak. I think we did pretty well. Unfortunately, we started pecking each other to death during the slow monotonous grind down to whatever will be the eventual baseline.
Biden seemed to say if it we’d done more and harder that would be somehow better. The question is if we’d done what? Would more filled warehouses of unused ventilators be better? Was the check I got useless because it would be better if Biden sent it?
There was a lot of talk about shifting dollars, because that’s what governments do. It seems like a solution looking for a problem. Suppose I have the check sent to protect me from COVID. To whom do I forward it if COVID comes for me? Does the grim reaper take a credit card? Does the ER have a secret “cure this one because he has $600 in his pocket” treatment?
It was a play for sympathy without substance. If I die because I fell off a cliff is that better because it’s not COVID? If Trump is insufficiently sad about COVID what does that say about that big mean doodyhead Biden who didn’t comfort me when my dog died? Where’s my check if I get Legionaries Disease? If my tomatoes plants die in the frost, which politician should I blame?
I don’t want a president who mopes and money’s just money. A virus doesn’t check your bank account. It doesn’t give two shits about politics. All the virus wants to know if your diet includes mostly Twinkies and when’s the last time you hit the gym… and even that might not matter. (Plus, the gym might be shut down.) Mostly the virus looks at your age and rolls the dice. We are all mortal.
Yet there was talk about money. If the only tool you have is a hammer…
I paused the debate to contemplate. Comparing actual action in reality compared to imaginary action and emotional responses is a pet peeve of mine. Adults don’t get to compare real choices with the pretend world. If I take an imaginary trip to 1991 to buy Microsoft stock at a buck a share, I still have nothing to sell at $200 a share now. That won’t change if we get a new president who imagines he, unique among all human beings, had the “solution” to COVID.
Trump tried to bring it back to earth. He tossed out a comparison of his performance, in real life, to a contagion of unknown danger, to Biden’s performance, also in real life, to a contagion of unknown danger. “Well, you didn’t do very well in Swine Flu. H1-N1, you were a disaster. Your own Chief of Staff said you were a disaster.”
Biden wasn’t having it. “14,000 people died, not 200,000.”
I paused the video. Was this lower death rate because Biden cut a better check in 2009? I don’t remember a check. Was it because he carpet bombed us with PPE? I don’t remember extra masks. I do remember a brief scramble for hand sanitizer. The thing I remember most is that people in 2009 didn’t choose to freak out. Schools didn’t shut down, factories ran, and restaurants weren’t closed. I don’t remember any particular response at all. As a voter, I never analyzed whether President Obama was too sad or not sad enough to properly reflect the situation.
Then again, I personally got sick.
Please allow me a side story. Back in 2009, H1N1 hit the news. Being as much a “prepper” then as I am now, I dropped by the pharmacy. There was a drug that was supposedly good for warding off H1N1. (I forget the name now, maybe Floase?) I tried to buy it but couldn’t. I forget the details from 11 years ago but I think one needed an Rx for whatever I was seeking as a H1N1 avoidance measure. You need an Rx and one couldn’t get an Rx without already being sick. How are you to take it before you get sick? Can’t be done. At least I tried.
As “swine flu” spread hither and yon, someone made a vaccine. I went to the pharmacy again. “Can I get the vaccine?” The pharmacist was a real asshole to me; like I was a selfish bastard for even asking. “No, you’re young and healthy, it’s being reserved for people in need.” OK, then. At least I tried.
I went home and in a comically short time got sick. So did some other family members. While I was sick, the media announced that there was an “excess” of vaccine. By golly they’d counted wrong. Everyone, even young healthy people, ought to skedaddle down to the pharmacy and get a shot. Make sure you hurry because you need the shot before you get sick.
Fuckers!
In my humble and personal experience, the government did pretty shitty job with H1N1. I was stopped in my tracks over everything I personally tried to handle or avoid H1N1. Eleven years later, the government went apeshit and shut down the whole fucking world. As far as I can tell, both reactions didn’t accomplish a lot. The virus did what viruses do.
The populace is what changed. We’re weak and jittery. In 2009 we kept the economy in motion. In 2020 we shut down civilization. Half the voters are still hysterical. They’d have us wear masks until we die of old age. The other half is angry and henpecked and just wants to live a normal life.
In both cases, there was an illness. It sucked, it killed people, it pretty much did what it was going to do.
I’m sorry. Was that insufficiently emotive for half the electorate?
That’s exactly the situation. My thinking is insufficiently emotive for Biden’s pitch.
I’m not done yet but I’ll stop here for now. Stay tuned.
Tilting windmills.