Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
Nov. 19, 2020
By Bill McCann
With six bankruptcies, lame-duck President Donald Trump is not the best businessman. With his chaotic administration, his leadership skills may be seriously lacking. And with his incessant lying, name-calling and accusations of adultery, he is hardly the poster boy for the Ten Commandments.
But give him credit. Trump could be the world’s greatest conman. He has convinced millions of supporters that he is a successful entrepreneur. He has falsely convinced them that before COVID-19 we had the best economy ever. He has convinced many of those hurt most by his economic, trade and environmental policies that those policies actually benefit them. He has falsely convinced them that the Russia investigation was a witch hunt; that Hillary Clinton’s emails were the crime of the century, even though she was cleared; and that despite 250,000 American deaths to date, COVID-19 is no big deal.
Without evidence, and despite losing the expected Electoral College vote and the popular vote by 5 million to President-elect Joe Biden, Trump has convinced riled-up followers that he won the Nov. 3 election because of massive voter fraud by Democrats.
Despite four years of corruption and chaos, his 22,000 falsehoods, and his fanning the flames of hate, Trump still received 73 million votes. It is unfathomable to me that so many people haven’t figured him out – or don’t care because he has an “R” beside his name.
While Americans debate whether Trump will have to be dragged out of the White House kicking and screaming on Jan. 20, two of his biggest con jobs continue to infect the nation. The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting the country and killing Americans, while Trump tries to pretend it away. Meanwhile, his false accusations of voter fraud continue to split the nation and threaten our national security. As long as he is in office, he is a danger to our health and welfare.
Trump keeps playing down COVID-19 despite a resurgence that produced more than 1 million new reported cases, and nearly 8,000 deaths, last week alone in the U.S. At a campaign rally in North Carolina on Oct. 24, Trump ranted: “COVID. COVID. COVID. COVID. By the way, on Nov. 4 you won’t hear about it anymore.” As he has done numerous times, he added: “We’re rounding the turn. We’re doing great. Our numbers are incredible.”
Incredible all right. On that day Oct. 24 there were 80,724 new COVID-19 cases and 789 deaths reported nationally, according to pandemic monitor Worldometer. On Nov. 4, there were 108,600 new cases and 1,199 deaths. On Nov. 13, the number of new cases exceeded 180,000, with 1,416 deaths.
Meanwhile, Trump and his GOP enablers are endangering our democracy by falsely insisting that Democrats stole the presidency. If Democrats are so good at stealing, why didn’t they also grab the Senate and kick Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell into retirement? A committee of federal government and other experts monitoring the election issued a statement last week calling the election “the most secure in American history,” adding: “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised.”
One reason Trump may be desperate to stay in office is to avoid prosecution, amid allegations that he may have violated tax, campaign finance or other laws. He also may be fighting election results for at least one other reason. The Associated Press reported last week that Trump’s campaign has been aggressively seeking contributions from donors to contest the election outcome. The AP quotes a campaign finance attorney with government watchdog Common Cause as saying, if you read the fine print, much of that money could flow to Trump. Once again a Trump con is on.
