Ross Douthat wonders why we accepted a stalemate with the virus instead of making a commitment to total victory. There’s a one word answer to that; it rhymes with “slump.”
There was undoubtedly an opportunity for Trump to embrace the concept of the “wartime president” and to take firmer measures to neutralize the virus. Handled soberly and energetically, it might well have been a political winner. He didn’t do it, because: the short term economic pain would have been far too great for someone who fixates on the daily movement of the stock market and the polls; and the people running around with assault rifles and complaining about the current version of the quarantine are his base. He wasn’t about to piss them off.