Essential Workers Should Have Been 2020 Persons of the Year

So Time Magazine named Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as their 2020 Persons of the Year? Yawn.

It's natural that Time would take the safe route of choosing a president-elect, as it has done on numerous occasions in the past, but it's hard to justify the selection of a man who hid in his basement for months on end to avoid tripping over his tongue as being a major influencer or a reflection of the times.

There is only one fitting winner that encapsulated the mood and experiences of a year that was filled with so much death, destruction, volatility and angst, while also exemplifying our nation's unyielding will to persevere.

The Persons of the Year should have been none other than our essential workers and first responders.

The healthcare workers who risked their own lives to save others.

The supermarket cashiers who kept our economy going, as they dutifully reported every day to their near minimum wage positions.

The police officers and ambulance workers who resolutely responded to domestic violence incidents and cardiac arrest episodes.

And then there were the brilliant scientists in our pharmaceutical industry who developed a COVID vaccine in warp speed time that will save the world.

It would not have been the first time this distinction was awarded to a group or an entity other than a single person (in this case, counting the Biden-Harris team as one). Ebola Fighters donned the magazine cover in 2014. Protestors did so in 2011 (and conceivably could have been so recognized again this year). And the American Fighting Men were tops in 1950. (They were also my choice for Persons of the Century.) Time even gave its prize to things such as The Computer in 1982 and The Endangered Earth in 1988.

It was to be expected that Time would fold the expected VP, Kamala Harris, into the award. She checks off two important identity politics boxes for the woke magazine.

This once vaunted periodical drowned long ago in a sea of elitist liberalism, as have most globalist award dishing institutions, including the Nobel Prize committee.

It is worth noting that early on in the process, news outlets speculated that the three most prominent nominees were a Democratic governor (Andrew Cuomo) , a socialist member of the House (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, aka, AOC) and a Trump defying bureaucrat (Dr. Anthony Fauci.)

But each of these darlings of the left have had at least one or two disqualifying moments.

Let's start with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In March and April, it was understandable to surmise that looking back at the end of the year Cuomo's commanding and informative press conferences would place him in a position similar to that of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani after the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Both hailed from the epicenter of those two tragedies, and both delivered a sense of leadership, direction and competence.

But Giuliani's brilliant stewardship was never marked by the type of miscues that plagued Cuomo's oversight during the pandemic. His awful, tragic decision to force nursing homes to take in COVID-19 positive patients, while empty segregated beds sat idle at the federal ships anchored nearby, was a stroke of monumental idiocy. Thousands of vulnerable elderly patients in nursing homes and adult care residences were unnecessarily trapped in a tinderbox of death thanks to Cuomo‘s foolhardy decision.

As to AOC, she certainly commands the media's attention and has become a major force driving the Democratic Party's tilt toward radicalism, but in the end, her brand of left-wing naïveté failed in delivering a larger Democratic majority. In fact, it could be said that AOC and her fellow Squad members were the exact reason why middle America voted in a backlash against their extremism and allowed Republicans to gain House seats, even as their standard-bearer for president was going down to defeat.

And then there was early favorite, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. To the liberal media, Fauci has morphed into icon status. As the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci was the point man for providing a sense of direction for the nation.

He was admired for his soft-spoken, cordial and understandable demeanor. But his greatest selling point to the liberal establishment, which includes Time, was his penchant to frustrate a president the media loved to label as being "anti-science."

At the very least, seeing Fauci's picture on the cover of this year‘s edition 50 years hence will signal that this was indeed the Year of COVID.

Yet, it's hard to think of Fauci as being a hero, given the fact that he so often was so terribly wrong.

It was Fauci who unwittingly defended the inaccurate and deceptive information flowing from China at the pandemic's outset.

It was Fauci who downplayed the potential impact of the virus when we still had an opportunity to clamp down on it.

It was Fauci who lied to the American public that masks weren't necessary, so they could be hoarded for the first responders.

And, most infamously, he was a leader in the movement to lock down our economy without any consideration being given to the dire ancillary consequences of such a draconian action.

Dr. Fauci is, no doubt, a well-intentioned and dedicated public servant. But Person of the Year? Hardly.

But back to the eventual winners, Biden and Harris. Unlike Reagan or Trump, they didn't forge a new political alignment. Unlike Kennedy or Obama, they didn't inspire a younger generation. They were just a safe, predictable, boring selection.

There were those who did inspire this year. For those of us who are not first responders and sat safely in our living rooms watching Netflix during this outbreak, we marvel at the sense of honor and duty exhibited by those on the front lines. They delivered our pharmaceuticals, stocked our shelves, sewed our masks, doused our fires, drove our buses, and cleaned our subways. They held us over until the storm passed. They kept our economy from collapsing to a point of no return.

And most importantly, our first responders gave us hope. They imbued a sense of confidence that reminded us that while we might bend, we will never break.

Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of "The Steve Levy Radio Show." He is the author of "Solutions to America's Problems" and "Bias in the Media." www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com Read Steve Levy's Reports — More Here.