Congressman Mike Gallagher and Sins of Omission
Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) has been presenting political reelection commercials for the November 2020 election. His first one started out with a statement about his oath of enlistment to the Marine Corps and Congress.
He stated, “The oath I swore in the Marines is the same one that I swore in Congress: To defend this country from enemies foreign and domestic…” Unfortunately, Gallagher misquoted his Oath of Office.
The Oath contains "I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…"
This is a significant alteration. The Constitution the base governing document of the United States. When we have governing persons ignoring our Constitution and undermining rule of law, they become domestic enemies of the Constitution. Without that crucial "Constitution" Gallagher and others can accuse anyone of becoming a domestic enemy.
Gallagher goes on to claim that "a virus" is an enemy, referring to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the cause of the COVID-19 disease. This is not an enemy in a traditional sense. It is a very infectious disease that caused year 2020 deaths in the United States exceeding 214,000 at the time of this writing.
Mike Gallagher proceeds "Like always, we have risen to the challenge; nurses and doctors, first responders, and every day workers. They never quit, and neither will I."
Representative Gallagher presents himself as a benign person praising health workers for their efforts in containing COVID. This is disheartening. Gallagher does not address the reasons why COVID-19 is such a problem instead of how it could have been mitigated. Gallagher ignores the reach of the disease that resulted from politicization of the disease by the White House.
The effects and spreading of the virus have been aided by bad governance. Representative Gallagher completely glosses over the behaviors of President Trump that caused the virus to get enough of a foothold in our country to rise to levels that have been lethal to too many Americans. Further, the damage to our economy is excessive since early thoughtful measures would have minimized our economic pain. This policy further ignores long term health issues that can result from infection.
Gallagher’s approach in campaign ads is low key. He has not mentioned President Trump; the leader of the Republican Party in his ads. He lets us know that since assuming office, he has married and has a child.
But, when he sings to his choir, he has a different song. He blames the "China" virus(2). Those are the words of President Donald J. Trump. The virus does appear to originate around Wuhan China. Local authorities stifled local attempts to raise the alarm. Thus, precious time was lost because of stubbornness and ignorance in local governance in China.
But, to use that as a reason for the poor response from top levels of government is dishonest. The White House took its time to address the problem. President Trump was recorded admitting that he knew the virus was bad but wanted to avoid panic; although, avoiding death would be better. Yet, President Trump’s behavior has been to minimize COVID-19 at the same time to blame China for his lack of response. Plus, there is a probability that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has multiple strains and the strains most infecting Americans are European strains.(3)
President Trump even stated a belief that the pandemic would be over by Easter 2020 to impress his evangelical followers. Or, that Summer temperatures would be the death of the virus. Our President continues to minimize the threat to life and livelihood. His actions have resulted in the infection of top Republicans, staff, news reporters, and political rally attendees. These persons can then go on to infect others
A better solution would be to act decisively to stem the rise of the virus. It would be to face the problem and work with all concerned to slow the spread and be prepared for future outbreaks. Continuing to place the blame on China is dishonest. COVID-19 is here. COVID-19 is now. It is our problem. It is the responsibility of political leaders and legislators to work to bring the pandemic under control and stop causing death and destruction among our citizens.
Since Representative Mike Gallagher likes to repeat the value of his time in the Marine Corp, I challenge him to repeat the correct oath of office. Then, I challenge him to address real issues in order to battle COVID-19. It makes a difference.
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1. 5 U.S. Code § 3331. Oath of office
An individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath: “, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”This section does not affect other oaths required by law.
2. Geographic and Genomic Distribution of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations
8 strains of the coronavirus are circling the globe. Here’s what clues they’re giving scientists.
3. Trump advisers rally Wisconsin Republicans, mock Democrats
by Brian McCorkle
in category Rants
