Anthony Fauci is a Health practitioner, Not a Dragon Slayer

Never Trumpers are attempting to placement him as the future head of the Resistance. That can only close badly.

A couple months immediately after Donald Trump received the Republican nomination, Camille Paglia penned an unforgettable essay in which she dubbed Trump the “viking dragon.” Today, that gold-and-maiden-hoarding beast has settled into the Oval Place of work. And however he’s established mainly un-slayable, the disgruntled By no means Trumpers are still once more throwing a dazzling-eyed tribute into his lair. Initially it was James Comey, then Robert Mueller, and now they’re turning to lousy Dr. Fauci.

There is a troubling spate of messianism in the American politic, a yearning for a savior. For several on the disaffected suitable, Trump was that messiah. For the still left, it is considering that develop into Fauci. The devotional candles are previously being offered. Prayers are becoming whispered: “Deliver us from evil.”

The LA Instances editorial board just lately published a piece that, in the 1st paragraph, characterised Fauci as an icon with a background of rebuffing egotistical anti-science ignorance, positioning him as specifically opposed to President Trump. And with Fauci creating his late-night time debut this 7 days on Trevor Noah’s Day-to-day Exhibit, it appears to be the machine is very well on its way to grooming its future St. George.

We know the place this will go—we’ve by now observed it with Comey and Mueller. The acolytes will sing the dragon-slayer hymn, hyping their anticipations, trustworthy that he will be the 1 to defeat the wonderful serpent in the White Household.

But it is a Sisyphean fantasy. Fauci is only a guy, doomed to drop short of these righteous anticipations. And by plastering his experience on stickers, T-shirts, and candles, his admirers will draw the president’s unforgiving awareness to him, and Fauci will be ousted.

This is these an overplayed tale that I’m 50 percent confident that Fauci is actually Comey walking on his knees in a lab coat. At the very least with Comey, his actual physical sizing (a towering six-foot-8) fit the graphic. A titan to slay the dragon! But Fauci? He’s a medical professional, and a very good a person. But he’s significantly a lot more cleric than he is knight.

Fauci was a pioneer of AIDS investigate, and he warrants accolades for this function. I’m glad he has the president’s ear, as a lot as any person can. But this fragile partnership is liable to be spoiled by partisan brawlers.

Fortunately, Fauci appears to be remarkably unphased by the brewing mania. Although he’s been receiving focus from celebs and media giants, he’s remained detached and professional. It is not like he can basically do anything to “defeat” Trump in any case. Nonetheless as the ephemeral Anthony Scaramucci as soon as famously reported about the president himself—it is not literal, it’s symbolic.

However impeachment was virtually a waste of time, it was a wonderful symbolic victory. Similarly, the By no means Trumpers want to make Fauci a symbol of the resistance. Consider if the kind health care provider had been to acquire the podium at the up coming push convention and connect with the president an incompetent boob. What a triumph that would be! The dragon would be slain, no?

No. Fauci is a great medical professional, but he’s no dragon-slayer. And if the disgruntled townspeople prop him up like one particular, he’ll be minimize down like all the others. The president, an ever-fickle dragon, would detect the rumbles of discord, and at the slightest signal of Fauci donning a sword and armor, devour but an additional sacrifice.

Never make him a saint. Really do not make him a knight. Just allow the male be a physician and vote out the dragon if you wish.

Shaun Cammack (@shaunjcammack) is a graduate college student at the College of Chicago and a contributor to Young Voices.