Mao was right, oh so right

In 1939 the vaunted Russian Army attacked little Finland.  A million men attacked.  Expected to last a several weeks at most, the Finnish Army punched far above it's weight,  and stopped the Russians "cold" in their tracks and inflicted heavy losses.  A hint of what was later to come against Germany, the Russians took it all in stride, but it was not until Spring 1940 that Finland finally capitulated. 

Alas, looked upon as weak and tottering, Germany attacked Russia.  Greatly underestimating the Russian ability to field armies, the Germans eventually lost.  Despite the horrific losses inflicted against them, the Russians simply kept coming. 

Russia wasn't so weak of course. 

Still, I cannot but help think that many an "educated" person may draw a similar parallel between the Russia of 1940 and America in 2020.

Never before has America seemed so incompetent.  So lost and directionless.  So authoritarian.  So helpless......to help itself. 

This is not the America I know.  Nor is this the America I want my children to grow up in. 

This virus now has a million Americans having tested positive.  That means probably closer to five million of us already have it.  But the more symbolic number has already reached us.  It is a number that all of us folks living between Mexico and Canada easily understand and comprehend. No written words or charts are necessary.  No scientific analysis required.

We now have more dead via COVID 19 than the number of Americans killed in Vietnam.

So from basically 1945 to 1975 58,000  Americans were killed.  But in the roughly 100 days since the first American death, we'd have roughly equaled what it took us thirty years to "accomplish".

For years, folks have whined about the "forever war" of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Maybe 4000 died. How many died during 9/11? 

But this will be a number no one will be able to dispute. At 2000 American deaths a day, even if we slow down, we will most certainly push past the number of deaths in Korea and Vietnam combined.

Jesus.

It didn't take much for the Chinese to begin with to look down upon us.  How "small" our buildings are, how few of them we have.  How dilapidated our subways are(we think their good enough!), how in general we suck.

And now we have this.

We as a nation have performed so badly, so poorly.   We have so ghastly underperformed to our potential and ability that how can other nations not think we are easily taken advantage of? 

The minds of a generation of Chinese will remember this moment when answering what they think of America.   Remember Mao called America a Paper Tiger.  At this stage, at this time, Spring 2020, he is right.  But even a broken clock is right twice a day, correct?

Democracy shows us perfectly how capable we can be.....with capable leaders.
And how pathetic we look and behave when we have, well, pathetic leaders.

I now "know" with certainty that capable "leaders" look immortal in times of crisis.  Incompetent leaders in times of crisis make us cringe.  In normal times perhaps they would indistinguishable from one another.   The trick for each voter is to determine which candidate or potential leader will not only keep the ship on course in smooth waters, but in a typhoon as well.  It is a tremendous challenge.  And perhaps the ultimate responsibility for a voter in any democracy. 

(How can an 18 year old make that distinction?  I don't think they necessarily can.)


Before Lincoln we had Buchanan.
Before FDR we had Hoover.

The same problem.  Two different leaders. 



I will never say I'm "ashamed" to be American.   But I will say and have continued to say how embarrassed I am this "person" is our President.

I need to remind people of a few things here:

He lost the damn popular vote.
Yet 60 million people still voted for the guy(half of whom will never admit it and the other half will want him to share their coffin upon their death).

So pathetic and packaged were our  current batch leaders that enough of you gave a big "fuck you" to the system....and won. 

And I will have to explain to my children forever and a day "why".