What Difference Does It Make?

I know. You’re tired. You’ve had enough of it.

You’ve had enough of the ads.
You’ve had enough of the political canvasing calls. And the texts, and the e-mails.
You’ve had enough of the angry Facebook posts, and the political discussions with friends.
You’re tired of the news reports, breathlessly counting down the candidates’ last-minute rallies…

What difference does it makes, anyways? Is anything really gonna change?”

Well, as a matter of fact….

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Let’s just talk about the pandemic.
Here’s how things will legitimately, genuinely be different.

For starters: We will have a real pandemic response team.

That’s what Susan Rice (National Security Advisor under President Obama) created when she established the Global Health Security and Biodefense Unit in 2015.
In 2018, John Bolton (NSA chief for this current administration) disbanded the team, scattering the remaining members throughout various organizations.

As President Obama said last week, “We left them with a playbook… Who knows where it is now?… Probably propping up a table somewhere.”

We will re-establish a relationship with the World Health Organization.
We will work our relationships with other countries, to try and develop a world-wide strategy for the virus.
We will be on the ground in break-out areas, trying to get as much information as possible.
We’ll see what works in other countries – and what doesn’t work – and share information.

We will have a President who works with states, rather than pitting them against each other.
We won’t have states bidding against each other for medical equipment and personal protective equipment.
We won’t have Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker getting 3 million masks, only to have it intercepted at the New York Port Authority.
We won’t have Patriots owner Robert Kraft flying the team jet to China to deliver 1.2 million masks (only to find that they’re KN-95 masks, not suitable for front line workers).

We will have somebody who coordinates getting ventilators and other supplies to hospitals.
One who gets gowns, gloves, masks, and other equipment to the workers in those hospitals.

We will have a leader who listens to health care workers when they ask us to please wear masks, and don’t have large gatherings.
Not a leader who mocks health care workers when they try to ask for equipment, or accuse them of “playing with the numbers” to get more money for their hospitals.
We’ve lost 1,700 of them already. We owe it to them to listen.

We will have a leader who realizes the truth that, you cannot save the economy of the country until you learn to handle the virus.
One who knows that people are smart enough that they will not flock to restaurants and sporting events and airports until it is safe to do so.
We will have a leader who works with the Senate and the Congress (across both parties) to develop a sane, agreeable plan for protecting those hurt most by the pandemic.
A plan that will let us open up schools and business, when the time is right, in a safe way.

We will have somebody who listens to scientists and doctors (when they warn us that a pandemic is coming) rather than mocking them.

…P.S. Tony should stop wearing the Washington Nationals’ Mask for two reasons. Number one, it is not up to the high standards that he should be exposing. Number two, it keeps reminding me that Tony threw out perhaps the worst first pitch in the history of Baseball!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020

We will have a vaccine development that is driven by science – and testing of the vaccine – not driven by “warp speed,” and political expediency.

We will have a leader who normalizes wearing a mask.
A leader who makes it obvious that the people who wear them are the real patriots, and that those who petulantly refuse to wear them are our biggest obstacle to getting back to normal.
A leader who understands that if 80% of Americans wore masks, we would cut the number of infections down by 96%.

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You may have noticed, I did not mention the name of the current occupant of the White House in the above statements.

This isn’t about a candidate who tried to withhold aid to a foreign country until they gave him dirt on his opponent.
Or calls his opponents names.
Or who bowed to foreign leaders who tried to mess with our elections.  
Or who paid nothing in taxes.
Or consorted with porn stars.
This isn’t about a candidate who is supported by David Duke, the KKK, and various white-power groups.
This isn’t about his refusal to denounce violent militia groups, or bizarre conspiracy theory groups like QAnon.
This isn’t about the man who put our Democracy in danger, by questioning the legitimacy of the election.
Who refuses to accepts the results of that election.

This is about surviving. As a country, and as a Democracy.

This is about finding our way out of this jungle.

This is about electing a man who has done this before.

That is why this old Republican is voting for Joe Biden.