The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
Trump has said: “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total and that’s the way it’s got to be….it’s total. The governors know that.” This explains why the response to the pandemic has been so disastrously mismanaged. Trump claimed total authority but then exhibited total abdication of responsibility for responding to the pandemic. He failed to mount any national response to the highly contagious virus and dumped it upon the states to compete among themselves for resources to combat the disease.
This refusal to take responsibility by Trump for a national health emergency left governors waiting in vain for tests and equipment from national stockpiles only to be told they were on their own to fight the pandemic. President Trump’s refusal to act allowed some governors to downplay the seriousness of Covid-19 and do little or nothing to combat the disease. Gov. Kemp in Georgia, Gov. Ducey of Arizona, Gov.Abbott of Texas and Gov. DeSantis of Florida opened their states to the spread of the virus resulting in the crisis that now ravages the United States.
President Trump’s refusal to accept responsibility for a national health emergency along with his reluctance to even acknowledge the severity and consequences of COVID-19 has turned the pandemic into a public health crisis and economic devastation that Americans are paying for with their lives and well-being.
–Hanson, of Elkhorn, is a member of the Walworth County Democratic Party.
