Sometimes your worst enemies aid you in ways you could never help yourself.

From July 10 to October 31, 1940, hundreds of badly-outnumbered pilots of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) fought off relentless attacks by Germany’s feared Luftwaffe—since known as the Battle of Britain.

But Adolf Hitler wasn’t prepared to give up. He believed he could so terrorize Britons that they would insist that their government submit to German surrender demands.

From September 7, 1940 to May 21, 1941, the Luftwaffe subjected England—and especially London—to a ruthless bombing campaign that became known as The Blitz.

The undamaged St. Paul’s Cathredal, December, 1940

More than 100 tons of high explosives were dropped on 16 British cities.  

During 267 days—almost 37 weeks—between 40,000 and 43,000 British civilians were killed. About 139,000 others were wounded.

Clearly, what Great Britain desperately needed most was a miracle.

Exactly that happened on June 22, 1941.

With 134 Divisions at full fighting strength and 73 more divisions for deployment behind the front, the German Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union.

German tanks invading Russia

Joseph Stalin, the longtime Soviet dictator, was stunned. The invasion had come less than two years after Germany had signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.

Now they were locked in a fight to the death.

People in England were suddenly hopeful. Britain now had an ally whose resources might tip the balance against Hitler—as they did.

Fast forward to 2020. 

After Donald Trump became President of the United States in 2017, he seemed invincible: Over the next three years, he:

• Repeatedly and viciously attacked the nation’s free press for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters, calling it “the enemy of the American people.”
• Publicly sided with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against American Intelligence agencies (FBI, CIA, National Security Agency) which unanimously agreed that Russia had subverted  the 2016 Presidential election,
• Fired FBI Director James Comey for investigating that subversion. 
• Gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey  Kislyak highly classified CIA Intelligence about an Islamic State plot to turn laptops into concealable bombs.  
• Allowed predatory corporations to subvert Federal regulatory protections for consumers and the environment.
• Shut down the Federal Government for more than a month on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico. An estimated 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay.
• Attempted to extort a “favor” from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: Threatening to withhold military aid unless Zelensky agreed to slander Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic Presidential candidate Joseph Biden.
• Threatened members of Congress with treason charges for daring to challenge him.
• After being acquitted of impeachable offenses by the Senate, Trump fired the Inspectors General (IG) of five cabinet departments in six weeks. 

Donald Trump

And through all those outrages, House and Senate Republican majorities remained silent or vigorously supported him.

Democrats seemed unable to cope with Trump’s legislative agenda and his personal attacks on Twitter and in press conferences.

Even when the press unearthed his latest corruptions, the public didn’t care.

Then, in January, 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic struck the United States.

On February 29, the first American died from the disease.

Donald Trump’s first reaction was to minimize the threat: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”

Then he turned to outright lying: “Now the Democrats are politicizing the Coronavirus….They tried the impeachment hoax….It’s all turning, they lost….And this is their new hoax.”

When many of the nation’s mayors and governors urged citizens to wear face masks and socially distance themselves from others, Trump urged his supporters to defy both. And they did as he ordered—marching down streets shoulder-to-shoulder, most of them not wearing masks, and with many of them carrying automatic rifles.

Coronavirus

In March, when much of the country’s businesses shut down, Trump demanded their immediate reopening—although there was no vaccine nor even adequate testing and contact-tracing facilities. This would allow him to claim he had “restored” the American economy.

Many states—especially in the South and Midwest—reopened prematurely. As a result, by his last day in office—January 20, 2021—American COVID-19 deaths numbered 400,000.

Then Trump demanded that Americans put their children at risk by sending them back to school in the fall—so their parents could return to work. Then he could claim he’d “saved” the American economy—and be re-elected.

Meanwhile, countless Stormtrumpers in Texas, Florida and other Red states had died because they refused to wear masks and/or social distance. His most high profile supporter to die: Herman Cain, the 2012 Republican Presidential candidate.

Significantly, Cain died one month after attending Trump’s Tulsa rally on June 20. 

Thus, Trump, through his arrogance and ignorance, had inflicted far greater casualties on his core supporters and poll numbers than the Democrats ever could—or would.

His lies had been exposed. His followers were succumbing to a disease he called a Democratic hoax. He had nothing to offer as a cure for the economy—or the pandemic. And his polls were tanking.

Seventy-nine years earlier, events turned around for England when all seemed lost. The same proved true for former Vice President Joe Biden on November 3.