What a bizarre day. I could have typed that on any number of days this year (or during this presidency), but today is over the top. As several people noted on Twitter in the last hour, when MSNBC has Brian Williams on earlier than his usual 11 pm purgatory slot, things have gotten serious.
I certainly recognize that Donald Trump has been hoist with his own petard. After months of downplaying the threat of coronavirus and making the wearing of the simplest of protections – a mask – a question of masculinity (and getting millions of people to go along with that), he’s not only tested positive but has symptoms that are serious enough to be transported to Walter Reed Hospital for observation.
I am not, however, enjoying any of this. Not only can’t I bring myself to celebrate anyone else’s illness, but Trump’s potential incapacitation from COVID-19 opens up a whole other chapter in the serpentine “Choose Your Own Political Adventure” we’ve been living since January of 2017, and I’m not looking forward to the ending.
I hope that our better natures can somehow re-emerge in the days to come and that our leaders can somehow work together and, oh, I don’t know, lead. I wouldn’t bet on it, though.