Guest column: Trumps assault on democracy is another contagion By Edward W. LovelyGuest column Share We are living through a pandemic contagion of the COVID-19 virus that, in the innocence of January of last year, was still to reap its rampage of millions of sick people and hundreds of thousands of deaths. Around that time then-President Trump minimized the danger of the virus and then, flying in the face of science, suggested that the COVID-19 virus would soon pass away. He continued for months to discourage masks, propagating his own sense of invulnerability to those in his Republican constituency who continued to go without masks as a symbol of their loyalty to him and fear of his disfavor.