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It’s a hell of a time to be an elderly person, what with the talk of acquiring “herd immunity” and it’s implication that, while most people will be able to slowly resume normal activities as more time passes, those of us in a certain age demographic will need to continue avoiding social interactions for a yet-to-be-determined length of time that, tragically, may prove of longer duration than many people may succeed in outliving.

None of this is made better by being at the mercy of a weak and feckless “leader” whose blame-avoiding apprehensiveness has immeasurably worsened an already life-threatening situation in practically every conceivable way.

Thanks to this man, the virulent spread of misinformation confounding the woefully doleful mismanagement of his administration’s virus response will certainly prolong the period we will have to isolate ourselves by months, possibly years longer than what would likely have been necessary had the epidemic been properly managed by capable leadership.

In the midst of this circus-like fiasco, here’s the vice president, standing out like a sore thumb, the only person flouting the clinic’s rules by not wearing protective equipment amid a roomful of properly masked and far wiser people during his now infamous visit to the Mayo Clinic, and by so doing, as Rachel Sandler noted in Forbes online, “raising questions about the White House’s inconsistent messaging during the pandemic.”

Questions indeed! No matter the federal guidelines recommending all Americans wear face masks in public! Apparently, when you’re the vice president, following your own government’s guidelines or setting the right example by your actions are but optional considerations to be followed only when convenient. Pence’s explanation for going unmasked was so he would to be able to look people in the eye and say thank you, even though hundreds of thousands of people are easily managing to perform those tasks while wearing masks every day. The vice president’s twisted logic may be a side-effect of his close association with his superior, who’s sometimes stupefying misuse of reasoned decision-making has now become the stuff of legend.

In addressing the vice president’s brazen faux pas, his staff said afterward that, in hindsight, they now believe he should have worn a mask to avoid provoking a negative news cycle. Their statement revealed Pence’s true reason for making the visit—to make news favorable to the administration while ignoring the importance of complying with the safety measures in place at the facility to protect anyone in his vicinity from viral transmission. Pence’s actions also bespoke an arrogance unbecoming someone of his position, as well as a willful lack of sensitivity that raises doubts about his ability to correctly comprehend the magnitude of the crisis facing us.

By now, practically everybody has witnessed the vice president appearing semi-comatose at press briefings and other public appearances. His blank stare only adds to the overall picture and begs the question, “what’s happened to his eyes?”

Were it not for the absence of any observable injuries to his body left over from machete blows, shotguns blasts or explosive devices, anyone viewing the vice-president’s torpid movements might believe he was on loan from the filming of a “The Walking Dead” episode.  Observing Pence standing dumbly beside dumpty, a person can almost imagine what it might look like to view him through the eyes of a snail or a sloth.

It’s difficult to determine whether the vice-president’s presentation is so unlike that of a normal person because of his having grown insensitive to the needs of others due to the many months Pence has stood beside the nation’s chief narcissist, in violation of the 30-foot limit that anyone valuing their sanity would observe instinctively, or it’s simply revealing some innate ability on his part that frees him of the bother of having to negotiate the feelings that the rest of us accept as part of daily living.

If it’s the latter, and we are only now becoming aware of his sensorial shortcomings because of the spotlight thrust upon him in his role as chief administrator of the pandemic response, his cold-blooded behavior is nonetheless saddening and troubling to behold.

A timely quote by Pope Francis aptly addresses the approach taken by the trump administration to not only the management of the pandemic itself but also to it’s approach to governance in general: “We already know where the voracious greed for power, the imposition of one’s ideas as absolute, and the rejection of those who think differently will take us: to a numbness of conscience and to abandonment.”

The trump/Pence version of governance has had ample time by now to prove itself. All it has proven itself worthy of is abandonment.

Tim Konrad

2020.04.30