Threat and Opportunity

If there’s one thing our President has demonstrated over the past four years, it’s his relentless desire to gain power by exerting authority in unprecedented, controversial, and (at times) illegal ways.

He revealed this first in his coordination with Russia to secure a victory in the 2016 election. It materialized in his declaration of a national emergency to fund his campaign-promised border wall. It can be seen in his never-ending attack on the media.

Why then has he missed out on such an incredible opportunity?

By opportunity, I’m referring to the COVID-19 crisis in America.

Nothing arms a leader with more power than public fear of an external threat. It allows him or her to justify their usurping of power as a necessary means to create an environment of “security.”

In this context, threat and opportunity are two sides of the same coin.

Just think back to 2001. In response to the September 11 attacks on America, our government birthed The Patriot Act. This legislation allowed (and continues to allow) it to freely obtain phone, computer, and banking records of innocent civilians.

Of course, Trump has capitalized on fear to gain power in various ways of his own. On a national level he misconstrued the threat of illegal immigrants in an effort to push funding for a Mexican border wall. On a more intimate level, he’s achieved a turnover rate of 82% in his executive office…demonstrating to new appointees the necessity of blind allegiance.

Yet in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, he seems to have taken a passive, even at times dismissive stance on the pandemic.

Sure, his pass on the COVID-19 “opportunity” may have been a calculated decision, informed by the economic repercussions of a COVID-19 response. Though certainly there was more power for him to gain through this opportunity than there was for him to lose.

Is power no longer a priority for President Trump?

Perhaps…he just didn’t see this opportunity at all.

Does he require something concrete and tangible to assess threat and opportunity? He can point at an immigrant, he can point at a Democrat, but he cannot point at a virus.

Do we all need something concrete and tangible to assess threat and opportunity?

Afterall, despite “knowing the numbers” for months, it took first hand accounts from countries like Italy for us to collectively recognize COVID-19 as a crisis worthy of action in America.

The world has a rough road ahead of it over the coming months, though with every threat there is also an opportunity.

We all now have the opportunity to reflect on the other crises that may not yet be as concrete or tangible as COVID-19, but may become just as serious before we even know it.

Which crises come to your mind?

Share with a friend and we can conquer our crises together.

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