As your constituent I write to plead for urgent action on your part in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that is ravaging our public health and economy. This is the greatest crisis to impact the nation in my lifetime, and I fear that it will irredeemably damage the prospects for my daughter and future generations of Americans if correct steps are not taken. We need the federal government now like we have never needed it since World War II, and it has yet to rise sufficiently to meet that need.
The problem is not a lack of policy expertise or competent planning on the part of federal officials. Doctors at the CDC and the NIAID have set effective guidelines and provided intelligent benchmarks for the containment and redress of the threat to public health. Our distress arises not from a deficiency in policy strategy, but from faulty political execution.
As our medical experts have told us, there is as yet no magic bullet or miracle pill that can dispel the pandemic, to combat it we must enlist the cooperation of tens of millions of Americans. Everyone must be mobilized in the collective effort to push forward testing, contact tracing, the maintenance of social distancing, the universal adoption of preventative measures like the use of masks and gloves, and vigilance in the maintenance of hygiene and sanitary conditions. Without such a mass campaign, the catastrophic danger to public health will persist, and therefore the deepening economic disaster will continue and intensify.
The crucial task in mobilizing and coordinating such a campaign is communication. None of the plans of medical experts will succeed without stable, consistent, dispassionate, and credible leadership on the part of elected officials. Moreover, given the scale and complexity of the coordinated effort that will be needed to fight back the pandemic, the White House is indispensable to any such attempt. No other institution has the broad audience or unquestioned authority of the Oval Office. We need an informative, disciplined, persistent, and unified message to emanate from the Executive, otherwise the collaborative power to defeat the threat will not be achieved, and the pandemic will rage on indefinitely.
Unfortunately, our President has proven incapable of providing the leadership we need. Where credibility, consistency, and discipline are needed, he has provided nothing but lies, evasions, reversals, disingenuous partisan rhetoric, and disinformation. He is manifestly erratic, untrustworthy, and focused on his own political interests over the common defense and the general welfare he swore to uphold. Though it is not realistic to contemplate his removal from office at this late juncture, for the good of the nation he must be replaced as "commander-in-chief" in the struggle against the Covid-19 pandemic. We are locked in a battle that Donald Trump does not have the character or capacity to fight, and if he persists as leader in this struggle the entire nation will suffer profoundly. and needlessly.
What then, is the answer? Pressure must be exerted on Donald Trump to step aside and give leadership of campaign against Covid-19 to a robustly powerful "Pandemic Tsar." Such a person would have to be well known, widely respected, have bipartisan credibility, and bring to the task a proven track record of managerial success. The ideal candidate would be Senator Mitt Romney, as he is one of the most widely recognized figures in the country and has a well-deserved reputation for integrity and dedication to public service.
Massive pressure must be brought to bear on Donald Trump to hand over management of the public health crisis to a new Pandemic Tsar. I plead with you to take up this cause in the Senate, and enlist your colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join in the effort to secure the leadership that we need. The moment calls on all patriotic and conscientious Americans to do whatever they can to rescue the nation from distress. We look to you to be bold and forthright in your service of the public trust.
I thank you for your attention on this matter, and hope that this message finds you well.
Sincerely,
Andrew Meyer
No comments:
Post a Comment