A COVID-19 epidemic could topple the US government.
On February 5th, 2020, democracy in America ended. On that day a man who had already gotten away with rape, fraud and money laundering before he was elected president, realized he now had the power and authority to commit any conceivable crime, and face no legal consequences. He added Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress to his list of crimes for which he has received no punishment.
The Republican party also learned something on that day; that they were free to cheat in an election, and could do so and still retain the support of their followers. Trump had a 49% approval rating ten days after the impeachment hearing concluded — his highest rating ever.
The United States of America is a country full of people dying slowly, just comfortable enough to not riot, but knowing that they are one illness, accident or ugly divorce away from homelessness.
The Democrats continued to play the game as if the rules had not changed, with their candidates touring the country, vying for support in the hope of receiving the Democratic nomination. They pretended that winning an election was still possible against an opponent that is ignoring the rules.
The correct response to a bully who cheats is not to ignore his cheating and bullying and pretend everything is okay, the correct response is to fight back. In response to the Republicans finding Trump not guilty of the impeachment charges, the Democrats should have gathered up any patriotic generals who were disgusted by the behavior of the Republican party, instigated a military coup, arrested all Republican senators excepting Mitt Romney (the sole Republican senator to find Trump guilty of abuse of power) and charged them with failing to fulfill their obligation as impartial jurors. They should then have scrapped the constitution and written a new one that holds everyone accountable to the law, even the president, and then re-tried Trump for his crimes under the new laws. They should have abandoned the Electoral College and written new election guidelines including proportional representation, a compulsory single transferable vote for everyone and a ban on electronic voting machines. Then they should have held an immediate election — because only after all of these actions can a fair election be held in the United States again.
But this didn’t happen.
People will not fight for ideals and risk their lives with violence when they are comfortable.
Violence breaks out only when people are desperate and frightened. Americans did not become desperate and frightened when the impeachment hearing ended, despite it ending the tenure of democracy in their country, because it had no immediate impact upon their comfort.
Americans don’t even fight back when their government murders them, so long as it’s done slowly enough. When they die slowly because they can’t afford their rent, or have crippling debt from college, their water supply is toxic, or they can’t pay their medical bills… when their government kills them gradually by depriving them of their basic rights, they are too weak and jaded to riot. Their enemy is a faceless bureaucracy so they don’t know who to lash out at. The United States of America is a country full of people dying slowly, just comfortable enough to not riot, but knowing that they are one illness, accident or ugly divorce away from homelessness.
But when Americans die quickly and unexpectedly, the world hears about it. When Americans die quickly the anger and resentment their society has built up is released. Vast swathes of the planet are bombed to rubble and foreign governments are replaced with more favorable regimes.
So what will happen if many Americans die suddenly, and the cause is clearly their own government?
Trump is presiding over a country where citizens will have to pay thousands of dollars for a coronavirus test and treatment. Where casual workers cannot afford to go to the doctor and cannot afford to stay home if they are sick. Where the insurance industry and hospitals have conspired to create hugely inflated prices for basic health care, putting it out of reach of those without insurance. Where cities have large, growing encampments of homeless people. Where there is very little support for mental illness and there is easy access to guns. COVID-19 could be the spark that finally ignites this powder keg.
Donald Trump’s understanding of medicine is exemplified by this tweet from 2014:
Trump has appointed Vice President Pence to take charge of all public messaging regarding the coronavirus outbreak. A man who, while governor of Indiana, opposed regulation designed to reduce the spread of HIV and cut public health spending resulting in the state’s worst ever HIV outbreak. Pence’s first action has been to silence medical experts from speaking about the outbreak without White House permission, a move no doubt inspired by the Chinese government’s initial censorship of information about the outbreak, which caused it to spread much faster.
In 2018 Trump fired the pandemic specialist at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), removing the position of Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefence entirely. On February 10th, 11 days after the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 a public health emergency, Trump introduced his 2021 budget proposal including a 16% reduction in the CDC’s funding.
If COVID-19 takes hold in America, and we see infection and mortality rates similar to China’s, what can we expect?
We certainly can’t expect it to be contained by draconian quarantines like China is capable of. We can’t expect an armed populace to remain civil when their loves ones are dying and they are turned away from hospitals for not having insurance. But we can expect the American people to pick a target for their righteous wrath, and that target may well be their government.
Trump’s incompetence has until now been forgiven by his followers because he has been hurting the right people, but when his ignorance and incompetence starts to hurt them — and not in the slow, drawn-out way they’re used to being hurt — when his lies and inaction lead to the sudden death of loved ones, Americans may finally have suffered enough to take action. This time they won’t have to go far to find a tyrannical government that needs overthrowing.
