So why is Ross Douthat minimizing Trump’s culpability on the virus? My guess is that he still views Trump as the means by which the GOP is converted from stale beer Reaganist economic thinking to something fit for the 21st century. A party that puts the interests of workers ahead of business, and supports industrial policy instead of tax cuts and deregulation. An American version of today’s Tories.
Will that happen? I doubt it. The GOP is still strongly opposed to organized labor–the disorganized version is OK. The WSJ is still on the job to enforce the party line. And, most of all, the pure flame of Trumpism includes economic thought that hasn’t changed significantly since 1980. Anyone who says he is picking up that torch in the future–and I suspect that means almost all of the GOP candidates–will have to accept that burden.