By Ren Ping

The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating around the world and the situation in the U.S. is still worrying. Statistics show that there are 1.64 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 90,000 deaths in the U.S.

However, some American politicians are still obsessed with buck passing and political competition, which has caused inefficiency and disorder in COVID-19 response. This is regarded as a disastrous failure even by the American society.

What shall be done during the pandemic, saving lives or pursuing economic performance? Which is more important, votes or the people? They are not hard choices.

However, the jaw-dropping practices of the U.S. politicians have not only hurt the life and health of the Americans and led to the global spread of the virus, but also exposed the true colors of the American democracy.

Instead of respecting the people and lives, they tried every means to seek selfish political gains, such as claiming that “some manufacturing may return to the United States due to the pandemic,” and downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic at home and fantasizing that the virus will disappear. These conducts have revealed the indifference and cold-bloodedness of the U.S. politicians, and ran completely against democracy.

As COVID-19 cases grew, some U.S. senators sold off stocks and then downplayed the virus’s risk to the public. This shows that in the face of the pandemic, some U.S. politicians put their own interests above people’s lives. How could it curb the spread of the virus and meet the expectations of the voters?

The coronavirus is not a matter of ideology and to contain the virus calls for the respect for science. But the U.S. has put politics above science and selfish interests above human lives in dealing with the virus.

U.S. epidemiologists were responding to the threats posed by the coronavirus from the very beginning, but their work was quickly politicized, noted Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman.

Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, said the U.S. government “is putting politics and cronyism ahead of science,” after he was removed from that position.

“The Guidance for Implementing the Opening up America Again Framework” written by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will “never see the light of day” because it is too detailed.

A warning given by top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci about the dangers of reopening the economy and schools too quickly was described as “not acceptable”.

A democratic system that worships selfish political gains more than scientific facts and people’s health is never worth being touted.

May is traditionally the Older Americans Month. A report published on the website of the White House said that the government will recommit to doing what it can to support and care for seniors.

However, data released this May indicated that more than 1/3 of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. were reported from nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

What’s even worse, some American politicians even inhumanly recommended that old people sacrifice their lives for the sake of the economy.

The U.S., which always labels itself as a role model of democracy and human rights, well explains the inconsistency of words and deeds and extreme hypocrisy by what it has done.

The COVID-19 mortality rate among senior people, the poor and non-white people in the U.S. is higher than that in other groups, statistic showed.

“If you are a high-income person, you can get tests a lot of times. If you’re low income, you’re not likely to get tested at all,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation during an interview with media.

It’s not hard to notice that the U.S. human rights are enjoyed only by the rich and democracy is a game of the rich.

The deep-rooted problems of the American democracy have long existed, and the pandemic has made them more prominent.

In April, Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services, released a report detailing medical supply shortages at hospitals. The document embarrassed Washington, which then announced to replace the official.

Since the explosive spread of COVID-19 in the U.S., a number of officials have been fired for telling the truth or holding opinions different from that of Washington. The root cause for this is that the U.S. politics is driven by money and votes.

Democracy is nowhere to be found in people who stick to the autocratic thinking that those who follow will prosper while those who don’t will perish, who act arbitrarily and appoint favored people, and who are obsessed with political competition and ignore the interests of the people.

Democracy is a value shared by all mankind. Though it varies in countries with different historical and cultural backgrounds, democracy should serve the fundamental interests of the people no matter in which country.

Facts have evidenced that it is self-deceptive to claim democracy exists in a country where there are a complete set of mechanisms and eloquent words spoken by politicians, but no respect for the people.

We advise certain American politicians to stop being arrogant and biased, and reflect on the weaknesses of the U.S. democracy and the real crises it is faced with, instead of pointing their fingers at others. This is for the good of both the world and the U.S..