Too Soon
It’s far too soon to think about politics. In fact, in a nation “sheltering in place” with hopes of hiding from the corona-virus, it’s not even “on the table”. Jobs, kids, family, and those who are at mortal risk from the disease are so much more important than the act of choosing the next President of the United States. The election is in November: we don’t even know if will we even be allowed out of the house by then.
But make no mistake, politics is “on the table” at the White House. The President who eschewed daily press contact, allowing the White House Press Room to remain empty and dust covered for over a year, now is on television every day. He’s trying to read the statistics, telling us all what he’s doing “right”, and attacking the press for questioning his actions. There’s no more rallies, no more “lock her up”; we now have the daily brief.
Bully Pulpit
It took the “big four” networks a couple of weeks to realize what was going on. But last week, when the President spoke for more than an hour and bled into the “Nightly News” timeslot, they decided to break away: even Fox. So now you can see the President on the twenty-four hour news channels, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, PBS, CBS and ABC. I haven’t checked out the others, but CNN and MSNBC are “fact checking” the President as he goes. CNN literally does it as he speaks, running chyrons correcting his mistakes. MSNBC brings in experts after he’s done, to straighten out the facts.
You can’t blame the President for using his “bully pulpit”. And it’s hard not to watch, even if the President confabulates the facts, he still has Dr. Fauci and the others behind him. They are telling the truth, both to Mr. Trump and the nation, and we want to know.
Changing Views
The President has made a significant change in his political calculations in the past few weeks. When the crisis should have begun, back in December and January, Mr. Trump led the way in denying there was a concern. Unlike countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Sweden, the United States didn’t engage in any kind of widespread testing for the virus. Since we didn’t test, we couldn’t follow the traditional public health model of “contact tracing”, following the trail of illness back to the original source, and isolating the cases.
Did that happen because the Centers for Disease Control had a test that didn’t work? Or was it because the United States refused the World Health Organization test? We do know that Mr. Trump didn’t want to hear “numbers”. In fact, he kept a cruise ship out in the Pacific for days, because if it landed, “his numbers” would go up. There was a lot of political pressure on the health agencies NOT to test – in fact there still is today. We still don’t know the extent of national exposure; doctors estimate that infection rates are at least ten times more than we acknowledge.
Someone Else’s Problem
So we didn’t test, and we couldn’t contain. The fallback medical position is to “mitigate” the damage, to slow down the infection rate so that hospitals can have a chance to handle the surge. That’s why we’re all “sheltering in place” now. The essence of “fault” for that should be a major issue in the fall election campaign.
And when the crisis grew, the President seemed to “pass the buck” to the states. It was the Governors and the Mayors that led the way in taking action against the virus, notably Mike DeWine of Ohio and Andrew Cuomo of New York. And many other Governors have stood up and made the hard decisions for their states. The problem: the President’s reticence to take control has allowed a “free market” approach to apportioning health care items. Masks, gloves, gowns, and most importantly, respirators for the health care workers, and ventilators for the victims: all are out there for the highest bidder.
Governors are asking the President to take control of the supply process. They are asking him to use the power of the Federal government to control interstate commerce, and ration healthcare items. So far, Mr. Trump has chosen not to take action.
And some Governors are avoiding taking charge. They are following the President’s lead in Florida, Missouri, and Texas; trying to avoid the problem by letting the local counties deal with a virus that doesn’t recognize political boundaries. It seems that there are disasters looming in those states, in because of them, for our entire nation.
The New Slogan
And now the President has found a new, grisly campaign point. “It could have been millions of dead, instead it’ll be a hundred thousand or so,” is his new slogan. “ I saved lives”.
That’s the image he’s building with his daily “briefings”. And that’s the campaign slogan for 2020 – Trump Saved Lives.
It’s too soon, too soon for campaigns. But when we emerge from our homes to a new world of corona-virus contagion, we need to ask the question: If the President had acted at once, how many lives could have been saved?
