In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families. Those challenges get far more intense during disasters. And coronavirus is proving to be the biggest disaster of all.
Coronavirus presents unprecedented challenges to public policy and the electoral process. Trump has a bad record on health care issues, especially now.
Like Moloch, the ancient pagan god, Donald Trump is ever ready to demand that Americans sacrifice themselves for his greater good. He commanded that states open up early, and then this happened: Arizona, Florida, and Texas are looking like Wuhan redux. Come this fall, the president also expects that parents will put their children in harm’s way for the sake of his re-election bid. In response, teachers have taken to drafting their wills, just in case.
But other moments, Trump acts like a man with a political death wish of his own. His justice department is urging the US supreme court to strike down the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional. The fact that 5.4 million people have already lost their health insurance amid the pandemic does not even register as a blip on the administration’s radar.
Instead, last month the government filed its brief with the high court in its endless endeavor to erase Barack Obama’s legacy. Just think of Wile E Coyote chasing Road Runner and you get the picture.
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The amicus briefs filed in opposition to the government’s position are bad news for the president. Portions of Trump’s base are actively aligned against him. In simplest terms, older voters and Catholic Americans don’t necessarily like what they are seeing.
AARP and the Catholic Health Association have come out swinging to defend Obamacare. AARP speaks for America’s seniors, and older voters are walking away from Trump.
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In Too Much and Never Enough, Mary Trump, the president’s niece, writes that if the president “can in any way profit from your death, he’ll facilitate it, and then ignore the fact that you died”. As her book dropped on Tuesday, the Grim Reaper’s scythe is again unsheathed. Covid is going full-bore. The prospects of Trump as a one-term president grow.
