When historians, a generation or two in the future, sit down to write the story of the pandemic, I’m betting they will not be kind to a certain former president. His legacy will be filled with many, many violations of both decency and the law. His refusal, for example, to recuse himself from his own financial affairs, to include profiting directly from lots and lots of foreign government agents staying in his fancy DC hotel, is but one of many examples – emoluments clause anyone?

But when the moral arc of the Trump administration is carefully reviewed by a generation not still beguiled by his unique brand of demagoguery, historians will find fault with an astounding number of policies and actions.

One, however, profound moral failing will likely stand above all others when the Trump legacy is finally viewed in its totality: the politicizing of the global pandemic.

With over 750,000 Americans now dead from the COVID virus, it is as if the residents of Denver have all died. Tragically an unknown number of those dead are gone because of Donald Trump and his reckless, irresponsible, and anti-science approach to this global medical crisis.

Those future historians will know how it all finally shakes out, but for those of us still mired in the various variants and jumbled responses of states and cities, the future has only one certainty regarding the virus: more will die.

Trump’s repeated false statements about the science of the virus (too many to recite here but easily found online) ranged from saying it will all go away in the Spring (of 2020) and that medications used on horses and household bleach might be good things to swallow. His attacks on the motives and patriotism of the key scientists have fired up his base – a portion of whom are so far to the right that they think attacking the nation’s Capitol was a good idea.

If Trump’s nonsense had faded with his departure from office, I would have far less to write about today. But sadly, the relics of Trumpian thinking remain tragically and dangerously active in American politics. And far too often, some of those true believers are in charge of things.

Which, of course, brings me to Douglas County schools…

You may recall that back in November, a slate of four very conservative candidates, who seemed to fully embrace Trumpism, won all the available seats on the local school board, becoming an instant majority of that seven-person body. And very recently, we learned how radically these new board members are willing to be. In a recent Colorado Politics story, we learn that the new majority voted to gut the mask mandate in Douglas County schools, because, you know, freedom. The three remaining board members, whose elections are staggered over the four-year cycle, all voted against the new anti-mask plan, but were defeated. An effort to push back implementation a month or so – to allow more time to figure out how to protect medically at-risk students – was voted down.

Again, freedom.

You may recall that in Trump’s inaugural address, he talked about the ongoing “American carnage” that he said was happening and vowed to stop. Trump, from his very first day in office, played on voters’ fears and bigotries. And when a global (let me repeat that, global) pandemic struck, he chose to play it like a horrific bit of political theater. To support actual science and to oppose Trump was labeled as being un-American. Trump needed you to be afraid and then to believe that only he (as he often yelped) could save the day. And all too many of his acolytes today press for policies that they hope their leader would love.

The problem, of course, is that the virus doesn’t care about such things…

One of the parents quoted in the CP story said that “The point is, we should be free to do what we believe is in the best interest of our children, … and not feel retaliation from administrators or school officials for those beliefs.”

Put more directly, this parent feels he or she should be able to do whatever they feel is best for their kids, regardless of what those pesky actual experts have to say. Oh, and when they make irresponsible decisions, they want to be free of any actual responsibility for their actions.

Back when my kids were little, there was one little kid who had a truly severe peanut allergy. It was so bad that the poor kid – about 7 years of age – carried an EpiPen just in case someone brought a PB&J sandwich to school. And in that classroom, all the parents agreed that, for the benefit of someone else’s child, they would all forgo peanut butter for the year. I can’t help but wonder how many of the Douglas County board members would demand the freedom to bring a PB&J to school they want, because, again, freedom?

Elections have consequences (though some GOPers have forgotten that) and the good people of Douglas County elected a slate of candidates on a mission from, well, Trump, whether they admit it or not, or even fully understand it. And I have no doubt that they think they are acting in the best interests of the kids. But tossing a mask mandate when we are still in a pandemic and while virus variants are still being passed around is just foolish and quite Trumpian.

There was a time when our politics did not require us to see those who disagree as disloyal agents of subversion. Sadly today, the simple need to wear a bit of cloth over your nose and mouth is not seen for what it is – genuinely caring for others. Rather, Trump redefined what freedom means (at least to some) and that freedom is viewed as a fundamental right to both ignore the needs of others and to see any request for kindness and accommodation as weakness.

And that is a shame, and quite likely a deadly shame.

The virus doesn’t care.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.