America held hostage
It’s a standard practice of con artists to promise something big and beautiful — if you pay them first. In President Donald Trump’s case, the promises are huge, and the price is re-election.
But unlike the typical con artist, Mr. Trump isn’t just enticing voters with things they want. He’s holding them and their country hostage for things they need.
There will be no economic stimulus, Mr. Trump declares, until after the Nov. 3 election. Oh, maybe he’ll toss a bone or two, lifting some ideas from the House Democrats’ $2.4 trillion package and rebranding them as his own. But negotiating the kind of comprehensive legislation that Mr. Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell have blocked for months? Re-elect me first, Mr. Trump essentially demands, then we’ll see.
Never mind that money from the first stimulus package meant to keep people in their homes and businesses afloat has run out. Never mind that schools, states and local governments are pleading for help. Mr. Trump’s political fortune comes first.
Nor will Americans find out what Mr. Trump’s supposed plan for health care is until after the election, even as the U.S. Supreme Court — packed with two and soon likely three of Mr. Trump’s conservative appointees — is set to consider a case one week after the election that could mean the end of the Affordable Care Act, and with it health coverage for tens of millions of Americans, for pre-existing conditions, for young people on their parents’ policies. Mr. Trump — whose administration is a party in that suit — promises he has something to replace Obamacare, but he’ll reveal it only if he’s re-elected.
Never mind that Mr. Trump has had more than three years in office to make good on that promise. Never mind that neither he nor his fellow Republicans have ever produced a credible plan.
More than 213,000 Americans are dead from COVID-19 and more than 7.6 million are infected. Mr. Trump promises that a vaccine will be widely available “very soon,” maybe around Election Day, or the turn of the year. No credible public health expert buys that.
Now the Commission on Presidential Debates has had to cancel next week’s event after Mr. Trump refused to debate former Vice President Joe Biden remotely, a precaution the commission appropriately imposed after Mr. Trump was infected (and after his family violated rules on wearing masks at the first debate). He says a remote debate is a waste of his time. Never mind that this was done as far back as 1960 with far less sophisticated technology. Never mind all the time Mr. Trump has for rallies and Twitter rants.
To recap: No economic stimulus for a desperate nation. No health insurance for millions who may be about to lose it. A vaccine, sure, but when, well, we’ll have to wait and see. No neutral forum for voters to hear Mr. Trump answer questions about his empty promises.
And like any good con, all that is subject to change if the marks — citizens, that is — don’t quite buy it.
This is bad for the nation. Public confidence in Mr. Trump’s handling of the pandemic is eroding, as each new poll shows. More than half the country doesn’t trust him. Nearly two-thirds fear politics is compromising vaccine development safety. More than 40 percent say they won’t take it.
The good news, such as it is, is that Americans are wising up, tired of being taken for suckers, tired of being held hostage. It’s time they told Mr. Trump this con has gotten old, because the cost has already been too high.