Wartime President Failed to Lead

These are the words of a wartime leader: "Now it's our time. We must sacrifice together, because we are all in this together, and we will come through together." The words were spoken when over 100 US citizens were dead with hundreds more hospitalized. The nation was frantic.

“Every generation of Americans has been called to make shared sacrifices for the good of the nation," the leader said per a report then. The call for citizens to respond was guided by past examples, the leader suggested, like teenagers volunteering to fight in the war and workers sleeping on factory floors.

Alas, that stance proved to be not much of a national wartime footing. So much for sacrifices. Not only did the leader's followers neither volunteer to fight the war nor sleep on floors, they would not do simpler practices that served the common good. Unfortunately, the self-declared wartime leader saw significant casualties--over half a million US citizens died on his watch.

“I do, I actually do, I'm looking at it that way. I look at it, I view it as, in a sense, a wartime president," President Donald Trump said mid-March 2020.

Fast forward to late-2021: Herd immunity, an elusive international goal, is now unlikely. We've lost that war. We won't "come through together," for the former leader has torn us apart.

He had been handed a political gift. Better than being a wartime president, he could have been a global savior. He could have led the world to a safe future; success seemed assured. His opportunity to bring stability in the face of a global crisis was a liberal's worst fear, for all the wrong reasons.

The wartime president succeeded remarkably in bringing emerging medical technology to market in record time, likely the greatest accomplishment of his administration. With Warp Speed, the leader capitalized on another breakthrough of American science. Finally it felt like the stated zeal to promote STEM education in order to have an informed electorate was bearing fruit.

In hindsight--where the fog of war is often lifted by the presence of responsible journalism--the Commander-in-Tweet abdicated his responsibility. Instead of minding the interests of the nation, he chose to battle his own nation's democratic integrity and institutions.

Left in the wake of the self-declared wartime president are nothing but hollow words about sacrifice, many sick and dead citizens, and a nation hobbled by a victorious enemy.