Chronicles of American Politics: The Posters of the Chamomile Tea Party 2010-2020

One of the Trump Administration’s first acknowledgments of the virus was anything but calming. Instead of addressing the health threat, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appeared on Fox Business to suggest that China’s outbreak might improve the United States’ job prospects. On Sean Hannity’s Fox News program, the President said people just get better from the virus and even go to work while they’re sick.

Meanwhile, the stock markets suffered their most significant losses since the 2008 bank crisis on pandemic fears, including the Dow Jone’s most significant drop in one day on February 27, 2020: 1191 points. Trump, who touted his economic policies, feared this drop would negatively affect his re-election. And the next day, his son, Donald Trump, Jr., accused the Democrats of hoping the pandemic “kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning….” Rush Limbaugh called the pandemic a “deep state plot” to bring down the President, and Trump agreed. On his radio show, Limbaugh said, “I want to tell you the truth about the coronavirus. The coronavirus is the common cold, folks.”

I’m Willing to Sacrifice My 401K to Defeat Trump. But What About Those Who Live Paycheck to Paycheck?, 2020

Donald Trump claimed the stock market’s meteoric rise was proof his economic policies were a success. Enter the coronavirus. You hooked your re-election to the market, Mr. President. You thought the American people would give you credit. “But a virus, unlike a Republican member of Congress, cannot be bullied. It doesn’t care about the president’s poll numbers.” Now what are you going to do?

There were several challenges our country faced. The pandemic, supply chain problems, immigration reform, domestic terrorism, climate change, and income inequality had become stressors on our society's stability. Homelessness was at an all-time high. The poor and middle-class struggled to feed their families and pay their bills. And the wealthy and large corporations were not paying their fair share of taxes.

The only Americans best served by a bull market are those who can afford to buy stocks outright or through their job retirement plans. Yes, the market had been good to stockholders. But what about most Americans who couldn't afford to invest—those living paycheck to paycheck?

A report by the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute stated, “In 1985, the typical male worker could cover a family of four’s major expenditures (housing, health care, transportation, education) on 30 weeks of salary. By 2018, it took 53 weeks. Which is a problem, there being only 52 weeks in a year.” Families can no longer afford the basic necessities on a year’s pay. On Monday, March 9, the markets continued to plunge, and the president blamed it on the drop in oil prices. He said the coronavirus was “fake news.”

Trump began referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus,” the “Wuhan virus,” and the “Kung flu.” He was either oblivious to the racist nature of his remarks and ignorant of their repercussions on Asian-Americans and Asians, or he simply didn’t care.

The President usurped the science and medical experts, casting doubt on their expertise and downplaying the pandemic’s severity. As we now know from his interviews with Bob Woodward for his book Fear, he knew COVID was deadly during this time, much worse than the flu, but he downplayed it “because [he didn’t] want to create a panic.”

For over 30 years, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had been the expert on how diseases spread. He rarely agreed with Trump’s “facts” or approach. Yet he knew he walked a tenuous line when he spoke to the public about the pandemic. Both saw this situation from two different perspectives. Trump saw it in economic, political, and personal terms, while Fauci viewed it as a public health issue. So, while the President was calling for a quick reopening of businesses, Dr. Fauci had to find ways to offer realistic and safe assessments, often countering Trump’s pronouncements.

Not only did Trump politicize the pandemic, he often suggested dangerous medications as treatments and cures, like hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug. He even suggested the use of ultraviolet light and the ingestion of disinfectant. After backlash from his remarks, he claimed he was being sarcastic. But many Americans believed him.

Abandoning Americans Is Trump's Re-Election Strategy, 2020

Republicans have tried to repeal or whittle away the Affordable Care Act over 70 times since its 2010 passage. Yet, they presented no serious alternatives. I documented these actions in three posters from 2013 to 2015.

President Trump promised his 2017 American Health Care Act (AHCA) would give Americans better care at a lower cost. But it gave the rich a $600 billion tax cut. The rich got their tax cut, but Trump never put forward his health care plan.

Three years later, he said he would sign a complete healthcare plan within two weeks. That never happened. Almost 3 in 10 lost their health insurance from employee-sponsored programs during the pandemic. And half of those remained without insurance because of its high cost. During his presidency, Trump never presented a program to provide low-cost health insurance.

The State of the Union: We’re On Our Own, 2020

Instead of focusing on health care, the President and the GOP pivoted to saving the economy. Trump said Americans should not “let the cure be worse than the problem.” Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick suggested that “senior citizens [should be] ‘willing to take a chance on our survival’ to help return to normal daily life.” In August 2020, Axios’ Jonathan Swan implored the President to understand, “A thousand people are dying a day!” Trump’s response: “It is what it is.”

Law and Order? We’re Not Holding Our Breath., 2020

When Donald Trump declared himself "the law and order president” in his Rose Garden remarks on June 1, 2020, many wondered whose law and order he was talking about. Was it Trump’s military stifling of peaceful dissent or law and order African Americans and other people of color demanded of the police? As long as Donald Trump was president, there would be little change. It would take a different type of leadership for systemic changes to take hold in our country. And it would take the conviction of Dereck Chauvin by a jury of his peers for the murder of George Floyd to begin that process.

The Ringmaster Thinks the Bible Will Save Him in November 2020

After declaring himself, the “Law and Order President,” Trump told every governor and mayor to deploy the National Guard to “dominate the streets.” If they didn’t, he threatened to “deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.” To emphasize Trump’s power, Attorney General William Barr ordered law enforcement to clear a path for the President between the White House and St. John’s Episcopal Church, a block away. U.S. Park police and other federal agents used tear gas and stinger grenades against the peaceful crowd. Trump silently stood in front of the church holding a Bible.

This act seemed to have no rhyme or reason except to mollify the President's evangelical base. Legislators, religious leaders, constitutional watch groups, and journalists criticized Trump and Barr for these actions as an affront to the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of assembly. Rather than project strength and compassion, Donald Trump's actions reinforced his failed attempts to intelligently and empathetically deal with race relations in America.

In April 2021, a jury convicted Chauvin of killing Floyd. But that was only a beginning. Two weeks after the verdict, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham stated there was no systemic racism in this country. Political change is glacially slow. Until there is change, none of us should hold our breath.

Today, many states make voting as easy as possible. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have automatic registration. Thirty-eight states and DC have early voting. However, intimidation, disinformation, purging of registered voters, voter ID laws, limited early voting, and elimination of voting rights of convicted felons continue to suppress the vote in other parts of the country. More often than not, these are along racial lines.

The More Desperate He Gets, the More Dangerous He Becomes, 2020

It’s July 2020. CNN’s Michael D’Antonio stated, “President Donald Trump now seems wounded and desperate—and this makes him dangerous.” He goes on to say, “Now wounded, Trump is resorting to a political terror campaign, spreading blatant lies about foreign-based election fraud and a ‘RIGGED 2020 ELECTION.’ Trump’s false claims, which CNN and others have repeatedly debunked, destroy public trust in the foundation of our democracy and set the stage for a potentially dangerous crisis if voters end up questioning the results on Election Day.”

You Don’t Belong in the Picture, Mitch, 2020

The day Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.” The next presidential election was nine months away. And he refused to allow the Senate to vote on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.

Four years later, just hours after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on September 18, 2020, McConnell wasted no time affirming his hypocrisy. He stated, “Americans re-elected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda.... President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.” There were less than 50 days left before the 2020 presidential election.

From a conservative point of view, one of President Trump's accomplishments was the number of judges he installed in the federal judiciary. The President appointed over 400 judges. Most importantly, he appointed three Supreme Court Justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett (one week before the 2020 presidential election). For the first time in decades, the balance of the Supreme Court shifted to a strongly conservative mindset.

Democracy is messy. Partisan politics are brutal and have cost this country's citizens their lives, livelihoods, and well-being. McConnell's hypocrisy is about power and control. Never mind what 62% of Americans think.

Trump’s Final Act of Defiance, 2020

One might have thought after contracting COVID, Donald Trump would change his behavior and his message: Americans should take the coronavirus seriously, and prevention should be a top priority. But that didn’t happen. During his three-day stay at Walter Reed Medical Center, his primary concern was that he looked weak. With the looming election, this became a liability he had to bury. He forced his doctors to sign nondisclosure agreements about his actual condition to control the narrative. The White House released staged photos showing him in the hospital’s presidential suite at work. And he took an ill-advised limousine ride to well-wishers across the street from the hospital, endangering Secret Service agents who rode with him.

On Monday, October 5, 2020, Trump returned to the White House. After his helicopter landed on the South Lawn, the President jaunted up the stairs to the balcony. Out of breath, he turned to the cameras and defiantly tore off his mask. Nine months into Donald Trump's presidency, he had defended white supremacists in Charlottesville. Four years later, Trump downplayed the pandemic for personal gain. Would this be his final act of defiance? Not yet.

The American people had a clear choice for president. Should Joe Biden win, would this end the era of MAGA? Biden vowed to work with Republicans to refocus our attention from extreme partisanship to one of cooperation for the better good. Would the GOP take him up on his offer?

Part 1: Partisanship on Overdrive
Part 2: The Electorate
Part 3: Politicians and Our Political Process
Part 4: The Issues
Part 5: Post-Truth, The Contentious Election
Part 6: Post Election: Post-Truth Reaches New Heights
Part 7: Immigration, Obstruction, Redaction, Oh My!
Part 8: The Pandemic and the Lead-Up to the 2020 Presidential Election

Next:
Part 9: The Big Lie (Coming Soon)



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