22 July 2020 — 0543 mdt
The sinner in chief comes to Jesus … lately
Trump blesses face masks and staying out of saloons,
but still refuses to issue a national mask-up mandate
Yesterday, at his first coronavirus briefing in months, President Trump, reports the New York Times:
…urged Americans to avoid packed bars and offered his most robust endorsement of masks, saying, “When you can, use a mask,” even as he falsely claimed he had always been supportive. “I have no problem with the masks,” he said, holding up a blue one with a presidential seal. “I view it this way: Anything that potentially can help, and that certainly can potentially help, is a good thing. I have no problem. I carry it. I wear it. You saw me wearing it a number of times, and I’ll continue.”
In fact, Mr. Trump has worn a mask in public on only one occasion — during a recent visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland. Until then, he often disparaged masks: In April, after public health advisers recommended wearing them, he said, “I don’t think I’m going to be doing it.” Mr. Trump mocked Mr. Biden in May for donning one, calling them “a double-edged sword” and even suggesting that wearing a mask was a political statement against him.
Although not a mandate, his endorsement of masks undercuts the compulsion of his barefaced disciples to strut the streets and stores sans mask in a show of support for their leader. Even if his permission to protect oneself and others persuades only half of his devotes to don masks and save lives, that will help.
Nothing, of course, can absolve him of his sin of for months resisting masks while the SARS-cov-2 virus burned through our cities and nursing homes, killing tens of thousands of Americans, crippling others, and doing enormous economic damage.
Masking-up in Montana
Will Montana’s Republican leaders strongly embrace wearing masks now that their party’s leader has sprinkled holy water on the practice? Will they support Gov. Bullock’s mask-up directive, converting the masking issue from one of politics to one of public health? Or will they continue pandering to the libertarian loudmouths who argue that whether to wear a mask is a freedom of choice issue. Lives are a stake. Now that their president has spoken, at long, long, last, it is time for Montana’s GOP leaders and legislators to mask-up with the rest of us and present a united resistance to Mr. Covid’s efforts to enter our bodies and not leave until he’s delivered them to our neighborhood undertaker.