Random thoughts on this and that.

Commentary

This: What really makes America great!

That: Forget “MAGA,” Wear “MACA”

First this:

I was watching The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC the other night.

In discussing the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. and around the world, O’Donnell’s panel of experts included:

• Dr. Ashish Jha, an American health scholar, is currently the K.T. Li Professor of International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Jha received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and trained in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco where he also served as Chief Medical Resident. He completed his General Medicine fellowship from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and received his M.P.H. from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
• Dr. Kavita Patel, a Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously, she was the managing director of clinical transformation at the Center for Health Policy at Brookings. Dr. Patel is an advisor to the Bipartisan Policy Center and a member of Health and Human Services Physician Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee. She also served in the Obama Administration as director of policy for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement in the White House.
• Dr. Vin Gupta, MD, MPA, MSc, is an Affiliate Assistant Professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. Dr. Gupta’s primary research interest is in development assistance for health and clinical work in pulmonary and critical care medicine. 

Here’s a screen shot from the show.

Notice anything?

If you don’t, how about these medical experts frequently called on to sort through and explain the current pandemic, Dr. Leana Wen, former Baltimore Health Commissioner and Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and Special Advisor for Health Policy in the Obama administration.

Still don’t get it?

Well, here’s Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci is the Director of the National Institure of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the only member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force to stand up to Donald Trump’s inanities. Fauci has served every American president since Ronald Reagan.

Doctors Jha, Patel and Gupta are of Indian heritage. Doctor Wen is of Chinese descent and Doctor Emanuel is Jewish. And Dr. Fauci’s grandparents emigrated from Italy. By the way, O’Donnell is an Irish-American.

This, not slogans, is what makes America great!

And now, that:

Talking about slogans and what really makes America great, as I was writing my column about Andrew Cuomo the other day, a number of words describing Cuomo’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic began swirling in my head.

• Competent
• Confident
• Compassionate
• Charismatic
• Clear
• Conscientious
• Cooperative…

I noticed, each of the words began with the letter “C.”

So, I thought, here’s our chance DNC, Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo, Bernie Sanders and the rest, don’t you think it’s time to trump Trump’s MAGA hats with hats of our own. Hats that actually mean something. Hats that truly represent what a Democratic president will stand for.

“MACA” hats!

And with MACA, you have the choice to make the “C” your own!