America is raging: bearing more than grief
If an American flag hung outside a home or a presidential statement of national solidarity are any sign of collective mourning in the wake of a tragedy, the country has seen a few in these past six months.
On September 22nd, the national COVID-19 death toll passed 200,000. Yet, the day elapsed with an unnerving level of normalcy – at least a new version of “normal” – and lack of empathy for the American lives lost. After a time, the difference between 50,000 deaths and 200,000 deaths has become almost indistinguishable, with any connection to the individuals behind the numbers lost. Unless one has personally witnessed the death of a close loved one, few Americans seem focused on the country’s health. Instead of healing the nation together, Republicans and Democrats have made the pandemic a partisan issue – fueling resentment towards American politics and deepening the sense of despair. As a nation, political differences have governed emotional and “physical” responses to the virus, such as social distancing and mask-wearing. These differences have become so divisive that even the death of nearly a quarter-million citizens has led to more political anger than empathy.
On one hand, President Trump’s downplaying of the threat of the virus, stigmatization of mask-wearing, unwillingness to cancel rallies and operation under no basis of science, reason or facts has enraged the left. On the other hand, the right has characterized blue state’s lockdowns, mandated mask-wearing and the consequent businesses forced to shut as suppression of personal freedoms, even an attempt to control Americans and deliberate destruction of the economy.
Unlike any other American crisis in recent history, individual states’ responses to the virus have become arguably more important than the federal government’s – deepening the division between blue and red America. In a twisted kind of “I-told-you-so” way, blue states such as New York which enacted strict lockdown and social distancing guidelines in early March and have made a near-complete recovery, deride those red states who were politically unwilling to do so as they continue to fail to contain the spread. Trump’s testing positive for the coronavirus is quickly having the same effect – liberals see Trump’s having COVID as being only a matter of time.
The pandemic’s falling in an election year has further deepened the divide. Trump’s hints at the election’s illegitimacy and possible refusal to leave office have once again taken the national dialogue away from loss and towards political division. Rather than bringing the American people closer together, crossing party lines as one might hope as some kind of silver lining, political differences have quite literally put Americans in harm’s way.
A year ago, the country could not have fathomed that they would face a global pandemic, forcing people to upend their daily lives and witness the deaths of over a million worldwide. Perhaps what would have been more surprising, however, is the resounding lack of empathy replaced instead by resentment and contempt for each other’s politics.
Nineteen years ago, Americans across the country waved a flag in solidarity outside their home following the attacks of 9/11. Americans mourned the loss of 3,000 Americans as one nation, filled with grief, but resoundingly united. Today, as many Americans die every three to four days as the total death toll in 9/11, national unity is virtually nonexistent. America isn’t just combating the spread of a virus. A new kind of epidemic is sweeping across the nation threatening to take more lives, undermine democracy and fundamentally destroy American national identity – if it hasn’t already.
Alannah Nathan is a freshman in the School of Foreign Service and a New Yorker by way of Seattle. She is a prospective STIA major and hopes to guide the future of climate change policy in the international arena.