Trump, the vaccines and the ‘deniers’ | Opinion

Donald Trump is not opposed to vaccines against COVID-19. He even ordered his administration to achieve them in record time, but that truth does not deny another –almost all “deniers” are Trumpists.Why are they opposed to people getting vaccinated? It is an unfathomable mystery. Perhaps because there is an antiscientific attitude in Trumpism?

It’s likely. Almost all Trumpists deny climate change (and almost all Trumpists who admit it say that nothing can be done to prevent it). Maybe because there is a wrong concept of individualism?

Well yes, I have no idea how one comes to the conclusion that owning an AK 47 makes human beings closer to individualism, but most Trumpists invoke the Second Amendment.

I believe in the freedom for all adults to do as they please, but as long as their decisions don’t affect other human beings. I found acceptable same-sex marriage, or the right to use one’s own body as desired – pregnancies, abortions, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and other stupid things –, but not getting vaccinated can be lethal, among others, for older adults.

Society, through the State, has every right to make the vaccination compulsory. In the same way that practically no one in their right mind objects to putting limits on the speed of cars on the roads, it should be strictly mandatory to be inoculated against Covid 19.

CNN commissioned a poll on Trump’s leadership over Republicans and found that a majority prefer him as a candidate in 2022. Fifty one percent want him on the ballot versus 49% who want a less vulnerable face. I suspect that the communication company would have preferred another less positive response for the former president, but the fact that it published its finding says a lot about its commitment to the truth. (Incidentally, since in US journalism it is important to disclose all the information, I work for CNN in Spanish).

I don’t think Donald Trump would be the Republican candidate. He will be 78 or 79 when his time to rule comes, the same age Joe Biden is today. At 75, as Mexicans say, the “viejazo” (the old age crisis) occurs. Three years ago, since that moment, everything happened to me. Not in vain, the Catholic bishops resign from their posts at age 75 in a letter addressed to the Holy Father. And cardinals stop electing the pope at 80. I don’t believe either that in 2022 Biden will be the Democratic candidate. He will encourage a new contender for the primaries to come forward.

Maybe it will be Kamala Harris. Maybe someone different, like Senator Amy Klobuchar. Or maybe it’s Gavin Newsom, Governor of California and Commander of the National Guard, who just won a recall referendum against stale Trumpism. He nearly doubles the Republican vote. California is not only the most populous state in the nation. The country is becoming more and more like that state.

After the next elections to elect the entire House and a third of the Senate, the great and true dispute will begin. In that moment, the accusation of tax evasion against Trump will be ready and – even more serious – of trying to carry out a coup on January 6, 2021, as assured by Gina Haspel, Director of the CIA at that time. turbulent, as if the United States were a banana republic.

Fortunately, Mike Pence, the then-vice president and former governor of Indiana, refused to commit the outrageous action that Donald Trump irresponsibly asked of him, an action that would have precipitated the country into a civil war.

Pence certified what had happened: there was no fraud. Joe Biden won the electoral vote (306 by 232). Besides, he gained a seven million vote lead in the race. As a journalist, I have met countless people who, out of apathy, have not exercised their right to vote, but I have never come across one of those millions of foreigners who vote for the Democrats without having the right to do so, as Trump and Trumpists often claim. I insist on the word: never. ©FIRMAS PRESS

@CarlosAMontaner. CAM’s latest book is Sin ir más lejos (Memories). Published by Debate, a label of Penguin-Random House, the book is available through Amazon Books.