the Future of Change

In the DC Comics canon, Bizarro Superman is the mirror image of Superman, often doing the opposite of what Superman would do.  Similarly, in just the last week, President Trump has seemingly done the exact opposite of what a responsible version of the president would do.

If invited to give a commencement address at West Point in the middle of a pandemic, a responsible president would decline, saying he would not want to jeopardize the health of the cadets and their families.  Trump has, instead, insisted that the commencement go forward, in person.

If meat-processing plants became hot spots for the virus, a responsible president would state that those plants must shut down and cannot re-open until there are adequate protections in place for the workers.  That president would also provide support to those plants so that they could have those protections in place.  Bizarro President does the opposite: the plants must stay open with no worker protections and no support from the federal government for the plants or their workers.

Finally, if someone asked a responsible president whether disinfectant might be useful to clean hard surfaces to rid them of respiratory droplets that might spread COVID-19, that responsible president would say the following: “Yes, that is an effective way to prevent the spread of the disease, but, remember, such disinfectants should never be ingested.”   Of course, President Trump said the opposite, without even being prompted.  Then, proving his Bizarro status, he later said he was being sarcastic, which is exactly the opposite of how a responsible president would approach a briefing about a pandemic in which tens of thousands have died and 1 million Americans have been infected.

We can turn to another pop culture figure, George Constanza, for a way out of the tragic mess the President has gotten us into.  In the Seinfeld episode entitled “The Opposite,” George literally does the exact opposite of what he would normally do in life. The result: his luck turns and he finds a girlfriend, lands a job with the Yankees, and moves out of his parents’ house.

If only President Trump could follow the wisdom of that pillar of the community, George Costanza, and do the opposite of what he would normally do.  Perhaps then we can start to reverse course out of this pandemic.