What the Pandemic Uncovered — Pt. 4

America has demonstrated a complete and utter lack of leadership throughout the pandemic.

Continued from Part 3.

These gaps and systemic flaws identified within America and discussed in the prior pieces of this series are repairable except for the most significant gap of all. America has demonstrated a complete and utter lack of leadership throughout the pandemic.

President Trump counted every escalating pandemic tracker as a personal affront to his own greatness, much as he perceives all negative news. To that end, he moved from denial to attacking and finally to ignoring the pandemic. His loss in the November elections afforded him a great reprieve. He has given little attention to national concerns except for his bogus claims of fraud since that time.

But democrats hardly performed better. Governor Cuomo of New York is often hailed as the adult in the room when it comes to political leadership during the crisis. Still, New York’s death count remains higher than any other state in the country even into the third surge of the pandemic. The state’s economy is in shambles. Every facet of American life exposed by the pandemic and discussed here is perfectly demonstrated in that state. Americans have credited Cuomo with leadership abilities simply because his ability to lead a coherent press conference far surpassed the President.

For Congress, the pandemic became a point of grandstanding rather than leadership. Republicans unified around an unspoken goal of becoming “the party of stupid,” publicizing conspiracy theories, resisting precautions, and absenting themselves from any creative or positive leadership. Since the start of the pandemic, 11 Senators and 39 Congressmen have contracted the coronavirus. Republicans account for more than 70% of that number. The refusal to wear a mask, socially distance, or exercise common sense was a machismo test of political loyalty not to ideology but President Trump.

Democrats played into the President’s consistent narcissistic objective of making the crisis about himself. Whenever they did take authoritative action, Democrats, more than Republicans, were frequently revealed as hypocrites. Democratic Governor Newsome of California was the highest-profile among these, but Democratic mayors of Austin, San Francisco, and Chicago all similarly directed the public to do one thing while they did another. And let’s not forget Nancy Pelosi’s haircut during the lockdown!

While gaining a pass from the media throughout the election season, even President-elect Joe Biden has yet to articulate a clear strategy or plan for confronting the pandemic. Most of his suggestions, vague as they are, include steps already being taken across the country. Beyond that, America is left to assume he will make it up as he goes along.

Both sides of the political, ideological aisle failed to present a firm grasp of either the competency or conviction to lead through the crisis. In their self-serving, they merely confirmed the public’s prior estimation of their inadequacies. They added to a sense of distrust so dangerous between the people and the government in a democracy.

The crises of 2020 revealed multiple systems that need reforming. The election system, healthcare system, food supply system…few systems of our nation remain outside the scope of needing serious overhaul if we are to withstand the next crisis. But the required changes are not coming!

Our political leadership is too gridlocked to advance the necessary changes. Consider where we are with a pandemic relief package in the final days of 2020. The relief package passed by Congress is not something anyone can be proud of, but even at that, it took months to secure and quickly fell into doubt with a few random words from President Trump.

We do not have a Trump problem. We have a system problem. Any move to the right or the left will be perceived as self-interest, and that perception will likely be correct. Since the systems cannot be upgraded, they will continue to decay and corrupt.

This is part four in a four-part series What the Pandemic Uncovered.