Too Many COVID-19 Patients, Too Few Ventilators: An Ethical Framework to  Guide Hospitals | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthToo Many COVID-19 Patients, Too Few Ventilators: An Ethical Framework to Guide Hospitals | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Hillary Clinton was pilloried for using this term. She was right; she just used it in the wrong context. It was deplorable that after 40 years of stagflation, wages declined, social norms changed radically, and opportunities to rise out of poverty disappeared. Trump appealed to the fear and frustration of the working class with lies, conspiracies, and demagoguery to feed his megalomania. Because he was so effective in manipulating the media. his propaganda campaigns were extraordinarily effective.

People “drank the Kool-Aid,” in effect, and their attitude of fear, confusion, and chaos became an article of belief. They were the victims of a rigged economy and a corrupt tax system, which was true. But despite what Reagan said, government was not the problem. It was the corporate lobbyists, malfeasance, and criminal behavior that took away their livelihoods. Goebbels perfected the strategy of “if you tell the big lie often and long enough,” then people will come to accept it as true. He told the Germans to blame the Depression on the Jews. The Republicans told us to blame low wages and globalization on the Democrats.

Unfortunately for the working class, Trump’s spiel was not only the product of his deranged mind, it also was a contrived strategy of corporations, the radical right, and the ultra-wealthy. They not only wanted to control all aspects of the economy, but also all levels of government. The goal was part of the Republican partisan agenda to create a WASP theocracy like the Muslim one in Iran. The “anti-government” forces wanted to bend legislatures and the courts to their will, and it didn’t matter about the cost. It was about power and money. January 6th was not an anomaly; it was the logical conclusion to a campaign of sedition.

I’ve heard so much frustration about the ignorance of the “anti-vaxxers” and how in previous eras vaccinations readily were accepted as the solution to pandemics such as polio. Well, the old saw claims “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” The Democrats messaging has failed miserably. Trump created a belief that Corvid-19 was a hoax and that any effort to control it was an infringement on people’s rights. It worked. He didn’t want to take the blame for mishandling the pandemic. His narcissism couldn’t accept that he had lost the 2020 election, so he also made than an article of faith for his followers.

You can’t argue or try to reason with a person’s deeply held beliefs. You only can try to understand where their coming from, and why their beliefs are so important to them even if they are based on lies. Even when folks saw their relatives and friends dying around them, some couldn’t confront the reality that they were lied to. It’s like a religious “conversion.” It was as much an emotional as an intellectual experience, which is why folks got so angry. I am reminded of Jonah Berger’s book Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind. “The secret to changing minds is to remove roadblocks and to lower the barriers that keep people from taking action.” In other words, if the issue is presented as not such a radical decision, you can offer an opportunity for compromise.

To date in the United States, we ended up with 800,000 dead. Trump, his cohorts, and our lack of a universal health system must be held accountable. We need a health care system focused on efficient delivery of services rather than on profit. Can we offer some sympathy for those who suffered the most? It’s not Christian to claim that they “got what they deserved.” They didn’t deserve to die. They deliberately were deceived, and they didn’t realize that until it was too late. We need a universal health care system that provides for the needs of everyone, not just the rich. We are the only developed nation in the world without one.

by John Suddath This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.