Trump has not been kemo sabe (trusty scout) to his people, who are bearing the brunt of the pandemic.
The epithet of “masked man” usually signals that the Phantom, Batman or Zorro is present and will start pounding the ungodly immediately. But Donald Trump, admiring himself in a mask, has invoked the West and discovered a striking resemblance with the vintage Lone Ranger. Trump did his self-admiration in the strictest privacy, being a resolute foe of masks. He had said that he did not see himself greeting “presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens” in a mask. He seems to be ignorant of the moral code of the Lone Ranger, which includes the directive: “That a man should make the most/of what equipment he has.”
Trump has not been kemo sabe (trusty scout) to his people, who are bearing the brunt of the pandemic. The mask is about all the equipment that the citizen has against spreading the disease. Trump’s rejection of this common-sense protection has served as an example to his flock, who abhor masks for interfering with “God’s wonderful breathing system”. He has scoffed at political foe Joe Biden for being responsible and wearing a mask. His recent show at Mount Rushmore had people packed like sardines, and very few wore masks. The results are awaited.
But Trump’s mask politics may be making the sensible Republican voter uncomfortable, and a change of tack is visible. Trump wore a mask to visit veterans at the Walter Reed military hospital. He thought it would be irresponsible to do otherwise when encountering the vulnerable. The English would have said that it’s like closing the stable door after the horse had bolted. The Americans, who are more visceral, think it’s like using a prophylactic after the act. And while meeting kings, queens and tinpot dictators, Trump will remain persistently, gloriously unmasked. God help them in the tribulations to follow.