The howls of glee from haters at hearing the news that President Trump has caught the virus were as predictable as they were vindictive. Never mind the fact that many high profile people, including the British prime minister, have caught the disease, the vitriol has been prolific. I find it difficult to understand how people who have never met the president and don’t even live in America can be so palpably nasty. Wishing death upon someone you only know from news reports or social media seems… an evil overreaction. Wishing death on anyone is bad enough, but this is unprecedented.
It reminds me of a joke (at least, I think it was a joke) I saw once, where a passenger on a plane had just heard that the pilot was a Trump supporter, so she hoped the plane would go down. How’s that for stupidity? Of course, it was a joke. No one, not even diehard leftwingers, could be so stupid… could they?
But we don’t want President Trump to die of coronavirus, and here are a few reasons why not (besides the obvious one which is that we shouldn’t wish death on anyone for their political beliefs).
On hearing the news on Friday, the Dow Jones dropped half a per cent. Markets absolutely hate uncertainty, and the announcement that the President has a life-threatening disease creates huge uncertainty. In itself, that tells you all you need to know, but there is more than that. There is an election in the USA in the next month. What happens now? It is too late for Trump to pull out. His name is on the ticket. He has to run. Mike Pence can campaign on his behalf, but he cannot run as the presidential candidate himself. It is too late for that. The campaign has to go on, even though Trump is now unable to be present for most of it. So what kind of an election campaign is that likely to produce?
It is too late to cancel the election, or probably even to postpone it. To do so would need a majority agreement of both houses – an agreement they are unlikely to get. Obviously, the Democrats are going to want to take advantage of Trump’s vulnerability, in the hope that it gives Biden the victory. But what if that happens? How will Republican voters react to that? America is already awash with accusations of voter fraud and shonky dealings. This is only going to make things worse.
Worst of all, you do realise that, if Pence has to pull out for any reason, most likely because he has coronavirus himself, the next person in the running to take over the White House is… Nancy Pelosi. Just imagine how well that will go down with Republican voters.
America is already a tinderbox, with cities such as Portland and Chicago enduring weeks of riots, looting and burnings after the death of George Floyd. The country has already been brought to its knees. How exactly is an election result that many will deem unfair because the front runner was laid low due to illness going to improve the situation? Most of the rioters, from what I have read, were Democrats. Republican voters who feel disenfranchised might react violently if they feel they have been robbed of the outcome they deserved. There will be no winners then, even if Biden is declared the victor. It will not have been a free and fair election.
The only real solution to America’s woes would be a delayed election, which is probably not going to happen. It is the only way that a fair election outcome could be achieved.
So to all those haters, such as the great Alison Mau, who wish death on the President, I say – be careful what you wish for. You are wishing for more instability, more violence and more death at the hands of a nation in crisis. Stability is the only way forward. Let us start with a free and fair election, with an outcome that no one can seriously contest. If Biden wins because Trump could not campaign, Trump will dispute the outcome. We all know he will, and with some justification. Where would this leave America? Whatever happens, the events of the past few months make it likely that we will see more violence, more burnings and more deaths in the land of the free. Why anyone would wish for that is beyond me.
But one final thought. I always argue bitterly with people who wish death on others, for whatever reason. I can understand those who dislike Trump wish him to be voted out of office. That is fair enough, and it is exactly how I feel about Jacinda Ardern. I dislike her as a politician, but I do not wish her dead. There is something very sick about people who wish death on others, especially on people they have never met. Such people might want to contemplate that, if it is okay for them to think like that, it is okay for others to think like that too, and they may find some of the hate aimed at them. If members of our media are publicly wishing death on the president of the USA, their credibility, what little they have left, is in tatters. Alison Mau and her bitter cronies on the left might want to stop and think about that.
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