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A quick perusal of the headlines this morning yielded two bits of unsettling information concerning the two leading perpetrators of Republican chicanery. In my haste, I neglected to properly source either of them. By means of a quick online search, however, I was able to confirm the validity of both. The first informed me that the president has stated that mass coronavirus testing is not necessary and won’t happen (CNN), and the second indicated that the Senate majority leader is opposed to remote voting.

What appears to unite these two pronouncements is an overwhelming urge on the part of these individuals to succeed in their malevolent schemes at any cost and totally without regard for whatever consequences may ensue.

Were mass testing employed, it would doubtless indicate the extent of the virus’s infiltration into the population has reached much further than has been reported thus far. Were this to be widely acknowledged, the public would likely become incensed at the lack of transparency concerning the government’s handling of the emergency to date. That realization, plus the emotional impact of learning the true numbers of those infected and those who have perished would reasonably lead to a deeper understanding on the public’s part of how the president’s deception-ridden mismanagement has necessitated the prolonging of the length of time stay-at-home orders will be necessary in order to finally contain the pandemic.

Despite what just happened in Wisconsin, where people wishing to exercise their voting rights were needlessly compelled to risk exposing themselves to the coronavirus by standing in long lines, in defiance of social distancing and common sense, McConnell has been in firm opposition to bills sponsored by Democrats that would enact progressive nationwide electoral system changes. The president also opposes mail-in voting, despite having registered for absentee ballots for him and the first lady.  If vote by mail were instituted nationwide, current demographics indicate that Republicans would, for the foreseeable future, have a hard time winning election. Were this to happen, the real-world effect on Republican candidates seeking to maintain their grip on power would be forever altered.

The ancient Greek philosopher and sage, Epicurus, is credited with having said “nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little.”

There is a certain kind of person about whom this saying is particularly applicable, a type whose proclivity disposes them to seek the possession of more than their fair share of the earth’s bounty. People of this predisposition are found in all walks of life, in societies worldwide and throughout every period in history, predating the world of the ancient Greeks and continuing up to the present moment. They are the takers, the ones for whom contentment lies always just beyond their next acquisition, people whose overpowering need for fulfillment knows no bounds and whose lust for power drives them to act with utter disregard for the welfare of their fellow human beings. We see them daily and remark at their utter callousness: Their indifference to suffering, so long as it’s not they who are doing the suffering, is remarkable.

The current president is clearly such a man, as is the current Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. Each of them appears unburdened by conscience. The power possessed by these men and their enablers allows them to do untold damage, wreaking extreme hardship on the lives of those not perceived as being of benefit to the furtherance of their agendas and whose welfare, as a  consequence, matters little to them if at all.

The effect of these people’s actions is always most felt by those on the losing end of their deal-making, because, in order that they may have more, everyone else is forced to make do with the scraps remaining.

The same holds true, unfortunately, for these men’s followers, the current crop of new Republicans, who’ve abandoned their long-standing party principles in their fervor to join the cult of Mammon These people, while taking advantage of relaxed or rescinded environmental regulations, gerrymandered redistricting, repressive and restrictive voter laws and the panoply of other unenlightened legislative agendas they have devised to permit them to line their pockets in myriad ways with their ill-gotten gains, do so at the expense of clean air and water, a corrupt health-care system, deferred maintenance and decaying infrastructure, and, of course, the underprivileged.

When the president disavows any and all responsibility for his so-called “handling” of his government’s pandemic response, those who support him and his dishonorable agenda hardly blink an eye, sated as they’ve become with the untruthful pronouncements emanating from his propaganda ministers at Fox News and other similarly corrupt media outlets.

Meanwhile, as the president’s approval ratings soar, our democracy is eroding before our very eyes.

To compound this tragic farce, not only do we have greedy, soulless Republicans muddying the mix, but we are also plagued with the addition of hordes of terminally imbecilic voters! The makings of a perfect storm if ever there was one!

It’s no wonder, then, that beings from other worlds, should they in fact exist, have not made their presence known to us. If you were a member of some team of alien visitors peering down upon us from above and witnessing this Faustian drama unfold, would you be so foolish as to make first contact with a people racing so hell-bent toward their own self-destruction?

Tim Konrad

2020.04.10