Used to be, politics stopped at the water's edge. I wonder how many Americans born in this century are aware of that saying. I don't know when that line was first crossed or by whom. It was certainly well before the 2016 election. Senate Republicans' letter to the Ayatollah telling Iran not to enter into the agreement with President Obama because it had no chance of ratification is just one example. Those of us in the middle of the road who thought that a public health issue like COVID-19 might be the line even President Trump would respect have been proven wrong. The President's handling of the crisis has run the gamut of a now familiar playbook. Whether it was downplaying the seriousness of the issue, insisting the problem would miraculously go away with the onset of warm weather or calling the governor of Washington a snake, Mr. Trump stuck to the tried and true tactics that have worked so well for so long for him. His base which he counts on to stand by him even if he shoots someone in public will probably not be persuaded by his demonstrable ignorance of science and disdain for scientists. Dare we hope that they may have the slightest doubt when they see the dent this has put in their retirement plans? May be not. But the rest of us should be less sanguine with the bear now prowling on Wall Street and the fear of hard times ahead on Main Street. Reasonable people can disagree on any given issue; but how many people think the President was right to pooh-pooh the issue until he no longer could? Even when it was clear he was wrong he continued to pursue political advantage as he saw it over the public good. Only when the market tanked did he finally turn to scientists in the hope that science could bail him out. Even then he made sure the scientists were on a tight leash and did not contradict him openly. The Administration's actions since the early stages of this crisis can only be defined as "day late, dollar short". As an example, their initial ask of Congress to deal with this was $2 billion. We are now looking at $50 billion. I am not even going to talk about the decision not to make tests for the virus widely available because they might show just how bad the situation was. There is no way to peek at a parallel universe under a different President of either party to know how this could have been handled differently. But the people I am addressing in this blog know this is not what we want in our President. Sunlight is a good disinfectant, but what our democracy needs is an airing of the facts so we in the middle of the road know what we must do this November.
- drrama7