Ross Douthat has no illusions about Trump as a person or a leader, but he continues to minimize the man on golf cart’s culpability for virus deaths. Does his analysis hold water?
It has three parts. Let’s deconstruct them:
- TRUMP IS A PRISONER OF THE RIGHT, NOT ITS LEADER: Douthat uses the term “folk libertarians” for the Reactionary faction of the GOP: right-wingers who oppose government intrusions into normally private behavior, not on principle, but because they think the government actively works to undermine their status and values. He thinks their opinions drive Trump, but the reality is that the lines of communication run both ways. Let’s put it this way: if Trump had worn a mask from the beginning of the crisis, and Fox News had told its viewers to be responsible, do you really think we would be where we are today? Of course not. Fox News viewers and rabid Trump supporters, by and large, believe what they’re told, even when the “truth” changes on a dime, as it frequently does.
- THE ESTABLISHMENT FAILED, TOO: It is true that public health leaders made mistakes early in the crisis due to a lack of information and, in the case of testing, some rank incompetence. They corrected those errors in time. Trump is still holding dangerous rallies and disparaging people who wear masks.
- HE’S NO WORSE THAN THE EUROPEANS: Douthat is misusing the data here. The most analogous country to the US in a geographic, political, and cultural sense is Canada, which has fared much better than we have. Most of the EU countries have also done much better, after a rocky start. Spain is the one outstanding ongoing failure, if you look carefully at the numbers.
So why is Douthat going to so much trouble to defend someone he despises? That will be the subject of my next post.