The signs are all there

“The list of Trump’s offenses is long. He panders to racists and prevents sensible immigration reform in a nation built on immigrant labor and intellect. He tweets conspiracy theories. He’s cavalier about COVID-19 and has led poorly through the pandemic. He seeks to dismantle the Affordable Care act without proposing a replacement. He denies climate change.”

But … what, Stacey?

“The economy and market roared under Trump’s championship of market-based solutions and individualism.” “… economic policy and principle should prevail.”

The country is not the economy, and the economy is not the market. The “individualism” you tout as a mark of Trump policies is the chief factor behind the resistance to using masks in the pandemic. “You can’t tell me what to do!” The denial of climate change is the force pushing the rollback of the “extreme” environmental regulations. The “nation is still standing” you say, even as civil service status is attacked, as racial hatred is inflamed, as families are broken by the pandemic and lost jobs and public civility washes down the sewer drains, while the West catches fire every summer.

To anyone who studied the rise of fascism in Europe between the world wars, the signs are all here before us. To those who have paid attention to the writing on the environmental wall, the warning is clear. And daily, the toll of the pandemic rises. Your economy won’t mean much when these chickens come home to roost …

Bill A. Kostelec

Spokane