‘Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel’ – Samuel Johnson
I’ll admit the Blue Angels are cool . I remember seeing them as a kid at the Lakehurst Naval Air station. My Mom and I watched the expert flyers execute their exacting maneuvers in the sky. It was an awesome day. I was totally wowed by their stunts and formations.
So it was kind of cool when they flew overhead a few weeks ago. It was cool again when the New Jersey Air National Guard performed a similar fly over the following week. The coolest thing was that the flyovers were intended to honor frontline health care workers. Having seen these workers caring for my Dad, who recently died of Covid-19, I can only say that we cannot honor these heroes enough.
So I should probably have been on the streets cheering for the planes as they flew overhead, right?
Unfortunately, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not because I don’t honor our frontline heroes, but because I know this is the kind of distraction that inept governments routinely employ to hide corruption and incompetence. And I can’t help but feel that is precisely why the present administration in Washington D.C. suggested the flyovers in the first place.
The Pandemic has been raging for months. What has the Administration done? Well, before it even hit, the President had already eliminated the White House Office for Pandemic Response. Then, when it hit, he called it a hoax for weeks. His response since has been a slow train wreck. No national strategy. Lackluster testing and tracing. Political attacks on Blue State Governors (and a couple of Red State Governors for that matter). A near total disregard for the advice and opinions of the CDC and epidemiologists. Firing health officials who dare point out the inadequacy of the federal response. Forcing states to compete for supplies. Eliminating and ignoring guidelines and pushing to reopen the economy in their absence. Encouraging protestors, many of whom are armed and/or carrying nooses, swastikas, and confederate flags. Refusing to wear a mask – and mocking those who do. Refusing to address shortages of PPE and other lifesaving equipment. Blaming everything on the Chinese (because, after all, wouldn’t all the problems we face have to be the fault of foreign devils?). Pushing untested drugs (and taking them!). And perhaps most infamously, suggesting cleaning agents such as Lysol or Clorox be used to clean our bodies from the inside out (and no, he wasn’t kidding).
We are being led, in a time of crisis, by a narcissistic buffoon who cares only for his own political prospects. If you object to my calling the President a narcissistic buffoon, I can only say, as former Republican campaign consultant Steve Schmidt recently noted while using similar terms, that I do not use them to be insulting; I use them because they are the precise words available in the English language to describe his character. The President has handled this crisis with all the aplomb of a petulant toddler who hasn’t gotten his cookies at snack time.
But hey, don’t worry! Look up the sky! Listen to the sound of the jets! Get out your American flags and wave them! It’s the sight and sound of America being made great again!
Or is it rather the sight and sound of a great distraction?
The Romans had payoffs and gladiatorial contests to distract their people from imperial incompetence and corruption. It was part of what they called ‘bread and circuses.’ In 2020, we have the Blue Angels.
I’m not falling for it. If you want to honor our frontline health workers, and I certainly do, then tell the President and his cronies to come up with a scientifically based national strategy for fighting this pandemic. Tell him to stop politicizing his response and to give our frontline heroes the supplies and systems they need to fight this thing.
Until that happens, the flyovers, while cool, are little more than a modern version of bread and circuses.
Under Christ’s Mercy,
Brent