The Economy
The Trump 2020 campaign strategy has been the same since 2017: win the Dow Jones and win the Presidency. It’s not new. Clinton Svengali James Carville coined the phrase in 1992: “it’s the economy stupid”. For Clinton, that became more important than the recurring campaign crises over “bimbo eruptions”, and with the help of Ross Perot, gained them the keys to the White House.
Win the Dow Jones and win the Presidency. With records broken on Wall Street, it was strong enough to overcome Trump’s bimbos (or is it bimboes?). It was enough to overcome child separation at the border, and it might even have been enough to overcome Russia, Ukraine, and impeachment.
But COVID-19 changed everything. It wrecked the “beautiful” Dow Jones, though pump priming from the Federal Reserve has managed to regain most of what was lost there. But the claim that “more Americans were working than ever” was done. From unemployment of rates of 3%, we reached 15% and, but for statistical slight of hand, maybe even higher.
The Virus
And of course, a whole lot of people were dying. They still are: yesterday the US had 1000 deaths from COVID-19 once again. We will soon reach the next grim milestone, 150,000 lost to the virus in six months. And over 4 million have been infected.
Up until yesterday the Trump corona-virus strategy was clear: “get over” COVID and let’s get back to work. The weeks long battle over re-opening the public schools hasn’t been about the “welfare” of the poor children who need to learn. It’s much more basic. Compulsory schooling began in the late 1800’s in order to get children out of the labor market. Sure it was nice that they went to school, but it was even nicer that their parents got the factory jobs that little hands were taking.
The Trump Administration can’t get Americans back on the job when kids are at home online. That won’t work, because their parents can’t. So schools need to open – damn the virus and full speed ahead. So what if, as the President said yesterday, ONLY .04% of children getting the virus might die. Gee, that’s only four out ten thousand. So Columbus City Schools has 50,000 students. If only 25% of those kids get the virus, that means five kids will die – and that’s just Columbus. Oh well, back to work, they probably had some pre-existing condition, asthma, diabetes or something.
Scientist in Chief
Opening the economy is still the overarching Trump 2020 strategy. It drives everything else that’s happened as the United States has worked itself into the greatest public health disaster in modern history. But yesterday, the President stepped alone in the White House Press Room, and tried to flip the script.
After months of ignoring the scientists, and weeks of denigrating Anthony Fauci, all of a sudden the President was the “Scientist in Chief”. He encouraged folks to wear facemasks; in fact, he had his Presidential mask in his suit coat pocket. He seemed to almost apologize for all of his ignorance that has come out of Washington for the past several months, from Chloroquine to bleach. Now he was standing there, with newly drawn graphs showing America’s “successful” COVID strategy, touting his program and the soon to be “magic vaccine”, tested and produced faster than ever before.
Flip the Script
The political Trump narrative of 2016 was that for the last 30 days of the campaign, the candidate actually “stuck to the script”. This is the “pride” of KellyAnn Conway, that she convinced Donald Trump to follow her strategy, and with all of the other events of that fateful October, ended up in the White House. Now the Trump team is trying to get him to do it again. He stayed “on script” for an entire thirty-five minutes in the Press Room yesterday, with only one “blip”. Wishing Ghislaine Maxwell, an accused child sex trafficker, “well”, probably wasn’t a great idea.
It doesn’t change what’s happened in the past six months. The virus isn’t the only issue: the nation is in the throes of a new awakening to racial injustice. The President made his stand on that, claiming “law and order” as he put secret police on the streets of Portland. And no one really thinks that Trump can stay “on script” for the ninety plus days remaining until the election.
But give Trump 2020 some credit. They’ve taken six months to do it, but they’ve finally figured out what the President should be doing in a COVID-19 world. He should be helping science fight the virus.
I should have happened in December.
