COVID-19: A crisis of leadership

"In facing our new public threat, as in the past, mature, insightful leadership is crucial," said Carthage College professor Arthur Cyr ("Government's evolving role fighting crises," Opinion, April 1).

Notwithstanding intelligence reports that a pandemic was likely, President Trump persisted with misleading messaging - continuously downplaying the COVID-19 threat. His message was amplified by Fox News as well as by loyalists on social media. The upshot is that the U.S. lost at least a month of precious time, so it is currently facing the worst outbreak in the industrialized world. Thanks to Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx who got the president to recognize the serious nature of the threat.

The president, a master showman, piggybacked on daily COVID-19 press briefings - starring in a reelection campaign reality side show. Revering followers saw the president as hardworking while seemingly blind to his lack of mature, insightful leadership capabilities. Showmanship is not leadership.

It is what it is. We are where we are with a crisis of leadership. How can one explain such a bizarre situation? Voltaire gave it a try some 300 years ago when he said: "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."

I hesitate to think about where we would be without Drs. Fauci, Birx and our nation's governors and mayors. Generals McMaster, Kelly and Mattis are long gone when we need them most - removed from the administration once the president found that they were not only smarter and wiser than he, but also well respected and prone to speak truth to power.

November 2020 will soon be upon us. Hope for a viable future of America's democracy will rely on a well-informed electorate that can help place experienced as well as competent and trustworthy men and women at all levels of government no matter their political affiliation.

Frank G. Splitt

Mount Prospect