WASHINGTON — The worst contagion still spreading is not the omicron nor the delta variant of the deadly coronavirus. This medical contagion has claimed more than 750,000 American lives since March 2020 and laid the rest of us low.

The contagion I mean is clear and ever more dangerous: Donald Trump.

The social scourge the ex-president started spreading from his first day in office is arguably worse than the pandemic.

Now we know Trump came into contact with 500 people when he knew he had COVID-19. He flew with COVID-19. He recklessly refused to wear a mask. He debated then-candidate Joe Biden.

Trump gave people the plague, no doubt, in White House and campaign events. If only it were that simple. Then we could shut the book of history on the 45th president.

In that book, we'd record Trump showed contempt for the looming pandemic by visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in golf attire and a red "Make America Great Again" cap last winter. As author Bob Woodward reported, he ignored expert advice, though he told Woodward how catching the airborne virus was.

Why a president led the American people into the waters of death, loss and grief is a question for the ages. Surely the plague would have been contained — or lessened — by any responsible, decent man in the Oval Office.

How I dream on for that outcome. For a nation where fights don't break out on planes over masks. A vaccinated sweet land of reason.

Trump dirtied the American body politic with hate, grievance and lies, which culminated in the horrifying mob he incited to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6.

It was not just a violent Trump farewell party. As I witnessed gunfire inside the Capitol, I felt a fury unleashed, a beast that could not be stopped in a single day by law enforcement.

That was the attempted murder of our democracy.

It was then beyond our imagination, though I knew foul play would happen that wintry day. I felt it in the air.

Tens of thousands, mostly middle-aged white men, amassed into the armed mob. Not even 700 have yet been charged. The longest sentence so far, meted out to the savage horned and helmeted rioter, Jacob Chansley, is less than four years. I went to the courthouse to see him face the judge.

The Charlottesville, Virginia, race riot in August 2017 was a prelude.

That ugly street scene, and Trump's defending "very fine" white supremacists, foretold our worst traits coming out into the open.

With Trump's low vernacular speech, a scorn for women, bloodcurdling racism and toxic xenophobia burst into our common spaces. Soon after, the public square burned to the ground, with "social media" lighting matches.

The most unforgivable thing Trump did is bring out the worst in us. Call it public "discoarse." This is most evident among the House of Representatives' Republicans. A sorry lot, they love Trump or quake in fear of him.

This gun-lovin' group has no shame. The rules are that there are no rules. They openly threaten violence, recently in a cartoon anime tweet by the outrageous Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., against a young Democratic congresswoman of color. Gosar had to stand in the floor well to be censured by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the full House.

Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are Trumpian freshmen whose unlettered gutter talk would shock any other House.

On Jan. 6, Boebert hinted at the gathering riot in a floor speech: "Madam Speaker, I have constituents outside the building right now."

The Trump scourge is spreading to statehouses to skew the midterm elections. Revenge is upon us all.

Even if Trump never seizes power, his poisoning the public well will last generations. He appointed three young radical Republicans to the Supreme Court, all enemy to reproductive rights, the law of the land.

The old Republican senator and soldier, Bob Dole, tragically died this week as a "Trumper." Indeed, that was the death knell of the grand old party.

Jamie Stiehm may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit Creators.com

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