We keep hearing how President Trump failed in his handling of this evil virus, and it’s making me weary.

For starters, the people who judge him the most harshly are the people who most harshly judged his mitigation efforts last Winter. Why aren’t they judging themselves, and their own failure to act? And, why does the media let them get away with it? The media is supposed to hold public voices accountable, yet for the sake of winning this election they remain blind, deaf, and dumb.

What truly galls me, though, is
that people have no imagination.

Frankly, it seems that most humans in politics hardly remember how to be human. They don’t remember that you aren’t supposed to point fingers or make false accusations, and they forget that everyone’s hindsight is 20/20 vision—including the President’s. I’m sure he sees now how wrong he was to every trust the World Health Organization or President Xi. Yet, he made the best decisions he could, and some of his decisions were very good. To suggest he failed in his handling of this global disaster is really to ignore the many things that he got right.

What truly galls me, though, is that people have no imagination. They do not see that if Trump had actually failed, things would look extremely different in our country today. They see the tragedy before us, and imagine what did happen in the United States was the worst case scenario. They imagine that there was a way to stop this evil virus from ever infecting even one person, but that our President “just didn’t care enough.”

Hindsight bias is a real thing, but it’s not a fair thing. We should recognize it and then stop and imagine what really could have happened, if Trump really had failed.

IF TRUMP HAD FAILED

• If President Trump had “failed,” there would be no cutting edge therapies in hospitals—brand new medications and treatments being approved by the FDA and used in hospitals right now. These therapies wouldn’t exist, and hospitals would still be overrun with virus-sick patients, if President Trump had failed.
• If President Trump had “failed,” liberal governors would not be criticizing him right now. They would not be publishing books, or plotting their next political campaign. They certainly would not be preparing for an appointment in a possible Biden Administration, either. However, they have the luxury of doing all of the above, because under President Trump’s Administration they were provided with all they needed to empty their hospitals and care for their citizens, so they are not exhausted from nine months of managing a state full of sick people and dead bodies.
• If President Trump had “failed,” no one would be marching or protesting or rioting or demonstrating or whatever you wanna call it. No one. They would mourning be their dead, or sick in a makeshift hospital.
• If President Trump had “failed,” at least half of the media that mocks him now would either be a rotting corpse on the outskirts of their city, or a pile of ashes in a mass grave.
• If President Trump had “failed,” no one would be complaining about wearing (or not wearing) masks outside, because nobody would be going outside. The stench of dead bodies and the daily sanitation spraying would leave the air too noxious for anyone to breathe
• If President Trump had “failed,” what we saw in Wuhan would have happened in every major city in our country. Citizens would have been locked in their apartment buildings, because there was no hope at all of caring for any of them.
• If President Trump had “failed,” no one would be talking about the weight they’d gained during the lock-down, because those empty shelves in markets would still be empty. Temporary food rations would have lead to soup kitchens, and we would all be standing in bread lines.
• If President Trump had “failed,” you would not know you were sick, until it was too late to cure you. Testing wouldn’t be available for the average Joe or Jill—and, certainly not at a drive-thru window. Plus, what would be the advantage of knowing, when hospitals couldn’t even treat you?
• If President Trump had “failed,” no one would be talking about HCQ, because his deal with Modi for millions of doses would have never happened. HCQ would be the world’s most rare and priceless commodity.
• If President Trump had “failed,” a deadly killer would still be roaming our streets, threatening our lives with every breath we take. Instead, that beast is being tamed by America’s scientific genius.
• Finally, if President Trump had “failed,” his wearing or not wearing a mask would be the least of anyone’s concerns. In fact, he probably would be dead.

As I wrote above, in hindsight we all see with 20/20 vision. I’m sure there are things we would have all done differently, if we had known what was ahead of us this year. Personally, 2020 has been a year full of looking backwards, trying to gain some wisdom, and grow from past experiences. Yet, it’s also been a year of looking forward with more clarity than ever.

I hope against hope that Americans will one day look back at 2020 with 20/20 vision.

I wish our politicians and media bosses would do a little of both. I wish they would remember what it was like in February, when we were all starting to wonder what was really happening. President Trump returned from his trip to India the day after the CDC took it upon themselves to—without consulting him first—warn the nation to prepare for lock-downs. A wave of panic had already started to crest. The U.S.S. Panic had set sail into a perfect storm, without the Captain aboard. I remember his concerns being mocked by every Democrat leader in this country, yet he still boarded that ship mid-crest and showed he was in control. The media was hardly paying attention to the “Wuhan Flu” in January or early February, not to mention in October, November, or December of 2019. Yet, they look back and demand he give a reason for why he was not locking down our nation a year ago. It’s utter nonsense.

Of course, that doesn’t stop endless Trump haters from parroting their attacks. It’s shocking how ungrateful and arrogant people can be, but the motivation to use this evil virus to try to wrestle back the White House is just too great.

I don’t expect history books to ever give President Trump his due, but I hope against hope that Americans will one day look back at 2020 with 20/20 vision. I’m not saying the Administration did everything right, but I’m never going to hold them to a standard based on what we all know now. Instead, I will remind myself of what could have been, and be grateful President Trump didn’t fail.

❤