Mixed Motives

Any of us who believe we are operating with pure motives need to step back and have another look. I am not referring to Trump and his coalition. They will have to answer for themselves. I’m rather referring to anti-Trump political liberals who are committed to making him a discredited one-term President.

Consider what currently gives us attacks of anxiety, and what fills us with optimistic delight.
Let’s begin with the economy. Obviously a robust economy in which unemployment is at an all-time low and everyone is sharing in the nation’s prosperity, is universally to be welcomed. When the pie gets larger and everyone has a bigger slice, we all rejoice. That reality may be signaled by a euphoric rise in the stock marker, lower unemployment rates, small businesses open and their owners thriving. Every indication of a broad-based prosperity ought to be good news—but is it?

Wait a minute!. Everyone of these positive economic indicators brings Trump closer to winning the November election—and that for many of us is very bad news. When in recent months the stock market made a remarkable recovery was that good news or bad news? If our only criterion is how it affected the coming election, did we smile or frown? And when it fell almost 2000 points in one trading session, how did we respond? I want a prosperous America, but if that helps secure Trump’s election victory I must admit to having mixed emotions.

Consider the pandemic ravaging the nation. While our retirement community has been an almost unscathed sanctuary, a recent report that tests produced two positive cases, both from our faithful employees, had us unnerved. When this deadly monster is finally silenced and life can return to some sense of normality we will ALL sleep better. The reduction in new cases and deaths is universally good news, and the rise in new cases very bad news.

Wait a minute! Trump’s desperate call for America to open up again was under the assumption that it would not increase the spread of the virus. If, however, it has turned out that opening up has been premature and as a result there are thousands of new cases, including an escalation in deaths, how do we take it? Would that indicate that Trump’s passion to open America was tragically mistaken and will aid is securing his defeat? But what if this return to normalcy has produced few negative consequence? Isn’t that good news for America as well as a validation of Trump’s passion? We want Trump to fail, but we also desperately want to see the very least number of new cases and deaths. Can we really have it both ways? And wouldn’t it be the height of hypocrisy if we gloated over Trump’s failed policy?

While we may be caught in the ambiguity, there are plenty of other issues pointing to Trump’s violation of decency, leadership, truthfulness, his racism and immorality. He has put his personal ambition before the sanctity of the planet by withdrawing the US from the Paris Accords on climate change. During the critical weeks when the pandemic could have been blunted, he called the whole thing a harmless hoax that would soon disappear. He has disgraced us before our international colleagues. And there is so much more.

There remains plenty of time for Biden and his party to design a platform to save America from these disastrous four years. A health insurance plan that includes everyone must be high on the Democratic agenda—just to name a single one of the many critical issues. Last week I listed a number of issues on which Joe Biden might build a winning campaign.

Let’s not fall into the trap of allowing the ambiguity accompanying mixed motives to cloud our vision. Too much is at stake.