Ah, the good old days when we could laugh at the buffoon running for president!

Such harmless fun, right?

Well, things are not so funny anymore now that the orange clown is sitting in the Oval Office calling the shots. The joke, as it turns out, is on us.

We now know what we had to lose by “electing” Trump. Forget about the rule of law or fidelity to the Constitution; forget about our standing in the world; even forget about the loss of “united,” as in United States of America.

No, we are now in danger of losing our very lives because of the court jester the Electoral College recklessly installed in the White House.

Donald Trump is not responsible for the coronavirus that has turned into a global pandemic. No, he is only responsible for irresponsibly downplaying the threat of the outbreak once it hit our shores and for failing to take the steps necessary to stem its spread.

First it was nothing to see here, just another Democratic hoax to bring him down. Then it was, “It’s bad. It’s bad.”

On March 16, Trump called for social distancing that could last until at least July or August.

But as the markets tanked and businesses of every stripe were facing steep losses, and Trump’s reelection chances were cratering along with the economy, we saw a third Trump pivot. The man that only one week ago declared himself a “wartime president” said it was time for the country to get back to work. The war was over.

Trump is now embracing the trendy new philosophy of the economic right: Death happens, live with it. 

In a recent Fox News interview, Trump noted that we would see many deaths from the coronavirus (which he conveniently called the flu) but it was worth it to get the economy back on track. He even implied more people would die, by suicide, if we went into a recession or depression.

“You are going to lose a number of people to the flu, but you are going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression,”Trump said. “You are going to have suicides by the thousands — you are going to have all sorts of things happen. You are going to have instability. You can’t just come in and say let’s close up the United States of America, the biggest, the most successful country in the world by far.”

Strangely enough, many sycophantic Republicans are OK with Trump’s cost-benefit analysis over death and the economy. The new talking point is that the cure is worse than the problem.

Speaking to Fox’s Tucker Carlson, Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick said:

“You know, Tucker, no one reached out to me and said, ‘As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren? And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in.”

As the saying goes, elections have consequences. But the now false choice between saving lives and saving the economy?

Sorry, Mr. Patrick, but the majority of Americans refuse to drink Trump’s Kool-Aid.

Photo |abcnews.go.com