Commentary: Trump's latest efforts to confront COVID are doing him no electoral favors

Perhaps only now, when things involving President Trump's future have become absurd beyond compare, can I possibly begin to grasp the electoral calculus of what to do at the ballot box come November.

Because when it comes to voting pro-actively for Trump, let's not kid ourselves. While I was confident his redux of the COVID press conferences was going to be bad, well, boy howdy. Fauci Wormtongue wasn't even on the stage and my phone was blowing up from people wondering if I was watching the grandest of self-immolations.

I wasn't, but I wasn't strong enough to resist the temptation of the ongoing train wreck, either. So I tuned it on and was introduced to a level of ventilator porn seductive enough to make even me blush. It was down and dirty.

The irony here is that my friend Daniel Horowitz said Trump should actually resign because remaining in charge is like putting the entirely of whatever remains of the American right on a ventilator. We seemingly need him just to get by, but the definition of getting by is pretty much barely not dead. It's a no-man's land of meaninglessness and lack of purpose.

I simply can't argue with that, but I also can't argue with the level of catharsis I discovered by enduring a press conference I was certain would break me but didn't. Admittedly, I have no idea if this feeling will last, but I may have actually arrived at the place with Trump that I have with the Detroit Lions.

Many times did I try to shed the team of my youth because of their seemingly unending ability to choose chaos over fruitfulness, but to no avail. They were simply my team, and once I accepted that I understood that there were ways to enjoy them even in their madness … actually, I could enjoy them BECAUSE of their madness. I was given eyes to see a deeper reality. I was no longer controlled by emotion but anointed with understanding.

And when it comes to understanding Trump, you must begin with him as a cause nearly beyond redemption. who at best can only randomly fill your most important political and cultural needs. That doesn't seem to change whether he has both houses of Congress or not, largely because he doesn't inspire most of Team GOP at the federal level under almost any circumstances, and they don't inspire him. So for every tax cut you get the preservation of Obamacare. For every judge selection we get a sellout. And around and around and around we go.

The ventilator lockdown logic from the recent press conference is every bit as telling. Trump is clearly trapped between (falsely) believing the lockdowns saved thousands of lives and that, in the face of electoral and economic disaster, knowing that the country needs to open up, get back to school, and play ball even in the face of real or imagined virus scares in Texas, California and other states. So no matter what he does, he betrays himself. And thus, by voting for him, many of you feel you would betray yourself in turn for approving such a double-minded fumbler.

But....

Let me be clear: Vote however you want. And let me also be clear that I haven't made a final decision for myself. But the Lions eyes I've been given concerning Trump have helped me see all the more clearly the gratitude I have for living in Iowa right now under the leadership of Gov. Kim Reynolds. Others have had a similar experience, no doubt, in South Dakota under Kristi Noem or in Florida under Ron DeSantis.

Because Trump has been in the White House, even incompetently so at times like these, they have been given the freedom to run their states largely as they have seen fit during the pandemic. Do any of us believe that would be the case under Biden and his puppet masters?

Maybe we deserve that ugly fate, which is why I'm still not sure it matters how I'll vote. That something cosmic, or providential, is happening here. A well-deserved spanking long overdue. That for too long we've been ignoring the limits on the cultural credit card, and the bill has now come due. Thus, events may be in motion which are beyond us, and all of our scheming and machinations are trite by comparison.

Either way, it seems we need a source more powerful than ourselves to raise Trump from the depths of the lukewarm Hell he's cast himself. Thus, instead of debating whether or not to vote for Trump, we should be praying for him.