Can a Pandemic Bring Down a Presidency?
Seemingly, there is an axiom within the pages of human history that any major catastrophic event must be birthed along with its own malevolent twin: a conspiracy theory. The truth of this axiom can be seen most clearly when it comes to pandemics. Consider, if you will, the “Black Death” (bubonic plague) which killed nearly 20 million people - more than one-third of Europe - in the mid 14th century. The disease was terrifyingly contagious; the Italian Renaissance poet Giovanni Boccaccio (best known for The Decameron) wrote that “the mere touching of the clothes appeared to itself to communicate the malady to the toucher.” The disease was also terrifyingly efficient: People who were perfectly healthy when they went to bed at night could be dead by morning.
Understandably, religious fervor, fanaticism and conspiracy theories bloomed and abounded in the wake of the Black Death. One of the best-known of the latter involved the scapegoating of the Jews of Europe, who it was said caused the Black Death by poisoning the water wells (which they confessed to under torture). While it is true that Jews apparently did suffer far fewer deaths, it is likely due to the fact that Jewish villages and communities had their own water wells and practiced better hygiene than their non-Jewish neighbors. (Jewish law commanded Jews to wash their hands before eating; Jewish custom had Jews bathe at least once a week.) Nonetheless, this conspiracy theory - this malevolent twin - led to massacres and cremations of Jews in Flanders, Aragon, Mainz, Cologne and Strasbourg.
Then there was the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919 - the tail end of what was then called “The Great War” (WWI) and the first year after the Armistice. This contagion infected more than a third of the world’s population and killed more than 100 million people. r
Rumour and misinformation were rife. The pathogen responsible for Spanish flu remained a mystery and, with little helpful guidance available from the medical community, the world was ripe for the proliferation of ‘fake news.” Conspiracy theories abounded and blamed the pandemic on the war – often, unsurprisingly, on the enemy. In Rio de Janeiro, one newspaper reported that the pandemic had been purposely spread around the world by German submarines, with innocent people “falling victim to the Germans’ treacherous bacteriological creation”. Artist Jordan Baseman, in researching the pandemic for a piece which ran on “Radio Influenza" found “The flu was blamed on foreigners (anywhere in the world, not just the UK), on Jewish people, on dancing, on jazz music, on the bombing of the soil as a result of the war, and on pretty much anything else you could think of.”
Although we have yet to come across anyone charging “enemies of the people” with purposely cooking up COVID-19 for god-knows-what mendacious purposes, we are witnessing enough conspiracy-mongering, dystopian theorizing, and outright lunacy to make invalids of us all. ‘45’s response to the approaching pandemic has been medically infantile, intellectually sterile and politically puerile. His main concern has been not to reassure both America and the world that we are doing everything within our scientific power to meet this problem head-on, but to kvetch and complain that his enemies - Democrats and the “lame-stream” media come to mind - are doing everything in their power to make sure he is not reelected. He is blaming us/them of endlessly reporting on the progress of COVID-19 in order to cause the thunderous collapse of the Dow Jones, which in turn will no doubt make his chances of reelection more dubious. As always, he is looking at the world through the eyes of a deranged narcissist.
Since his inauguration, D. Trump has cut funding for both the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes for Health (NIH), as well as getting rid of virtually any and everyone who has experience dealing with pandemics. This should come as no surprise: no president has ever been so anti-science, while proclaiming himself to be the most scientifically knowledgeable of all presidents. While millions wonder whether it is best to wear surgical masks, the POTUS wears his mask over his eyes.
At his press conference last week, the president held forth on the difference between flu and COVID-19, predicted that with the coming spring and summer the higher temperatures would destroy the virus, and slammed the top-ranking Senate Democrat who said ‘45’s $2.5 billion request from Congress to fight the deadly virus is insufficient. In a later tweet, the POTUS wrote "Cryin' Chuck Schumer is complaining, for publicity purposes only, that I should be asking for more money than $2.5 Billion to prepare for Coronavirus. If I asked for more he would say it is too much. He didn’t like my early travel closings. I was right. He is incompetent!," Trump added.
As the impact of coronavirus continues to be reported, concerns are arising that it is driving xenophobic attacks toward people of Asian descent. Conspiracy theories and agenda-driven narratives are popping up all over the internet and throughout right-wing media, adding more panic and confusion to an already chaotic situation. The virus has also triggered anti-Semitic sentiments, medical and scientific disinformation, and fear mongering from the religious right about the end of the world. The president and his allies in the media have also absurdly argued that Democrats and the media are politicizing coronavirus for their own gain to make him look bad and cause panic in the stock market.
Right-wing media outlets and online accounts are spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories which could have deadly consequences. Many in the right-wing media are placing blame squarely on the back of the Chinese government: On the same day as ‘45’s press conference, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs claimed, “we don’t know yet whether or not this [e.g. COVID-19] was an engineered virus” and said that there is “a research lab some 300 yards from the epicenter of this outbreak.” Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that the virus is "an effort to get Trump" and was no worse than "the common cold." On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence (who the POTUS appointed to be his eyes and ears vis-a-vis COVID-19) stopped by Limbaugh's studio to talk about the response. Limbaugh did not bring up his conspiracy theories, though the VEEP did promise that the virus would not spread within the country (less than 24 hours later reports would indicate that the virus spread on the west coast and that an American in Washington State had died). [n.b. Since I started writing this essay less than 24 hours ago, a second death has been reported in Washington State.]
As COVID-19 continues to spread - which inevitably and regrettably it shall - the White House. its residential householder and the political party he leads, are going to feel and hear more and more disapprobation from the American public. They will hear the complaints of people who are feeling unwell yet cannot take a day or two off work or school; they are going to be hounded by all the men, women and children who cannot afford to get medical checkups either because they have no health insurance or when they go to the local E.R. find they can’t even find a parking space . . . let alone an available M.D., P.A., R.N. or N.P. They are going to be feeling the wrath of millions upon millions of wage earners whose I.R.A.s are dwindling precipitously to near nothing; they are likely hear the increasing drumbeats of fear and perhaps finally come to realize that they haven’t the slightest idea what to do.
Can a pandemic bring down a presidency? I don’t know; my crystal ball has yet to come back from the dry cleaner. What I do know is that I would greatly prefer to live in a country whose president is sane enough to know what he does not know, and wise enough to seek the counsel of those who do.
A little bit of knowledge goes a long way.
Be well, and stay away from myths!
247 days until the presidential election.
Copyright©2020 Kurt F. Stone