• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 29, 2020

With Independence Day just around the corner, The Lincoln Project has released an ad commemorating the legacy of the World War II-era Greatest Generation — and damning Trump for his willingness to sacrifice what remains of it to COVID-19.

The elderly, as you know, are far more susceptible to severe and deadly complications from the disease.

The ad opens with FDR’s “Day of Infamy” speech about the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and how a generation stepped up to save Democracy. As WWII images flash across the screen, the ad’s narrator states that victory “didn’t come easy, it didn’t come quickly and it didn’t come without great sacrifice.”

The scene switches to Trump talking about reopening the economy quickly, with the sound of a hospital heart rate monitor beeping in the background. “We can’t let the cure be worse than the problem itself,” Trumps states, as the scene shifts to a senior clinging to life in a hospital bed.

The ad concludes with the question: “Haven’t we asked enough of the Greatest Generation?”

Screenwriter John Orloff (“Band Of Brothers”) is credited with helping to create the spot, which launched Sunday in Arizona, Florida, South Carolina and Texas. It will air on Fox in Washington, D.C., starting Tuesday.

“It is both disheartening and disturbing that the generation we owe for bravely taking up arms and conquering fascism is now at risk of being extinguished by the authoritarian residing in our own White House,” said Rick Wilson, cofounder of The Lincoln Project.

“There is absolutely no equivalency between American lives and our economy, especially those of the most hallowed generation of Americans ever, the patriots singularly responsible for our continued existence as a nation and a democracy,” he added.