Irish Examiner View: The empathy void shows its real value

It is ironic that the value of empathy has been highlighted because the spectacularly unempathetic President Donald Trump has contracted Covid-19.

The widespread absence of empathy is an obvious consequence of the Trump administration's culpability in America's 210,000 or so Covid-19 deaths, culpability it, naturally rejects.

Empathy is a mercurial, almost indefinable quality. It can be a powerful energy in relationships, generally in the most positive ways. In a world almost weary, or at least pretending to be so, of anything that predates the internet, empathy has been rebranded as mindfulness. Those ideas may not be twins but they are certainly first cousins. It is ironic that the value, the human heft, of empathy has been highlighted because the spectacularly unempathetic President Donald Trump has contracted Covid-19, one of around 35m people to do so. Few if any of those have had comparable medical attention, even if there is certainty around their diagnosis. The response to the Trump announcement, and the admission that the virus has run amok in a mask-averse White House, was scepticism and an empathy void. That is a consequence of the Trump administration’s culpability in America’s 210,000 or so deaths, culpability it, naturally rejects. Fake culpability assumedly.

In another twist, Trump’s declaration provoked sympathy from opponents, their empathy prevailed. Joe Biden prays for him. Kamala Harris sends him heartfelt wishes. The Biden campaign has suspended negative TV advertising but the Trump campaign’s all-guns-blazing ads and attacks continue.