Is Donald Trump the “Good” Parent?
Mommy’s being very mean, making you take your medicine as long as the doctor says you must
By Mitchell Zimmerman
Imagine your daughter’s recovering from a bout of strep throat. Daddy didn’t want to take her to the doctor in the first place, saying a little sore throat was no big deal and telling you to “be calm. It will go away.” “Like a miracle, it will disappear,” he said. But you weren’t going to rely on miracles, and at the clinic Dr. Fauci said your daughter certainly did need treatment — and in fact you should have brought her in much sooner! He prescribed antibiotics and said she must stay away from other children until she was entirely better.
Five days into the ten-day course of medicine, little Angelina starts saying she doesn’t want to take a spoonful of that icky syrup any more. And daddy jumps in, saying — right in front of her! — “Angie’s getting better. Can’t we skip the rest of this nasty stuff?”
“Are you crazy?” you tell your spouse. “Don’t make me out to be the mean parent. Strep can lead to heart disease if you don’t treat it. We’re not stopping her medicine until we’ve done everything the doctor says we need to.”
“But Dr. Fauci and the others don’t know everything,” your husband replies. “I understand this stuff. I’ve met lots of medical people and every one of these doctors has said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.”
You’re speechless. Natural ability? He’s no doctor! Has he become delusional? This is your child’s life and health that’s at stake. Who is this man?
Really, what can you say?
Unfortunately, this is the United States of America in 2020. Two million Americans have been hit with coronavirus, most of them seriously ill, and we’ve suffered 112,000 dead. But President Trump is doing his best to be the “good parent” and to make the Democrats out as the “mean parent” who won’t let you go to the movies or restaurants or anything, and won’t even let you play with your friends.
In the real world, of course, it’s not just Democrats who recognize it’s better to take your medicine as long as you need to and that it’s dangerous to make believe you’re all better when you’re not. Doctors, epidemiologists, scientists and public health officers of both parties — even some Republican governors — fear that hastily “re-opening” the economy now, and cutting back on social distancing, will result in a new surge of Covid-19 and more death.
Their views are shared by the overwhelming majority of Americans. According to a May poll, three-quarters of Americans prefer to keep trying to slow the spread of coronavirus even if that means keeping many businesses closed. And while President Trump thinks it’s beneath his dignity to wear a mask to protect himself and others, fully three quarters of Americans believe customers should be required to wear face masks when visiting businesses.
Is President Trump trying too hard to be the good parent? Actually, he’s not acting like a parent at all — or like a responsible president. He’s more like an out-of-control adolescent, egging on his buddies to take reckless chances, like demonstrating shoulder-to-shoulder without masks to demand that state governments act as though these are normal times. A real parent — that is to say, a real adult — faces reality and deals with it even when it’s unpleasant.
It was bad enough President Trump belittled the danger dozens of times over the early months in which coronavirus quietly spread through America, even though he was warned repeatedly of the impending pandemic. Bad enough his failure to respond decisively — and the delay he encouraged in imposing social distancing — have cost at least tens of thousand of lives. But no sooner did the necessary desperate measures start to have some impact then he insisted we must prematurely “re-open” America because “the cure is worse than the disease.” And he announces that if re-opening unleashes a new round of contagion and death, still we mustn’t have another shut down.
How many more of us have to die so Donald Trump can continue to pretend he’s the “nice parent,” the only one who wishes we could return to normalcy?
