Author: hamilton1788

We are frequently told that the feebleness of our response to the pandemic is the result of the strong strain of individualism in our national character. And yet, Americans tolerated rationing and other severe restraints in order to win World War II. How does one account for the differences?

Consider the following:

1. Some of what is being called “individualism” is actually reactionary opposition to a government they believe is hostile (Trump excepted) to the values of “real Americans;”
2. The country’s leadership encouraged the reactionary individualist response instead of slamming it as being selfish and unpatriotic; and
3. It’s a lot easier to hate the Japanese and the Germans than a virus you can’t see.

Joe Biden is 78. He only ran for president because he (correctly) thought he was uniquely positioned to rid the country of Trump. He succeeded; to some extent, what actually happens during his administration will be an afterthought. He may well not run for a second term for that reason.

Biden doesn’t have to worry about his legacy the way most presidents do, because his will be assured the day he takes office, and because he probably won’t live long enough to watch the debate. That gives him a freedom in office that most presidents don’t have. If the left bashes him unmercifully on Twitter, as it almost certainly will, what’s it to him? He can just live in the moment and try to do what’s right for the country, not himself.

Here’s hoping he takes full advantage of the opportunity.

His tactics were unconventional, to say the least. There were plenty of doubters. He didn’t win many style points along the way. He needed a lot of help from his friends, and even his opponents. But he had a clear idea of what had to be done, and the discipline to stick to the script, even when it didn’t appear to be working. In the end, the tortoise prevailed, and saved us from four years that would have been far worse than the last four.

Joe Biden is the person of the year. Was there any doubt?

As you can imagine, it was difficult to resist posting material with an Apprentice theme–e.g., “America to Trump: You’re Fired!”–after the election. It occurred to me a few days ago, however, that Trump’s efforts to overturn the result of the election are the other side of the coin. By arguing that the popular will is subordinate to his wishes, Trump is, in effect, trying to fire America.

Good luck with that. We’re a lot bigger than he is.

Josh Hawley has apparently decided to ignore McConnell’s warning and object to the electoral vote on January 6. Ben Sasse’s take on this is that Hawley is irresponsibly damaging public respect for a vital political institution in the hope of winning some cheap popularity with the Trumpist base, which could be useful in 2024.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I’m not sure what his original intentions were, but as a result of the pandemic, Biden’s plan became very simple: stay out of the spotlight; sound reasonable and responsible; limit any discussion of ideology; and let Trump destroy himself. It didn’t require much talent, but it did require lots of discipline. This, his campaign had in spades.

The approach worked for Biden, but not for down ballot Democratic candidates, who couldn’t plausibly blame their opponents for Trump’s failures with the pandemic. The result of the election was consequently a mixed bag. Trump lost, but the blue wave that many pollsters predicted never materialized, due to the GOP’s inherent systemic advantages and exploitation of the culture wars in red and purple states.

If the Democrats win the two special elections in Georgia, they will have at least nominal control of the Senate (Joe Manchin will have plenty to say about that), and the left will be pressing for sweeping changes to the political and economic system. If not, and the odds are against it, a small group of senators from both parties will hold the balance of power in the Senate, the left will be frustrated, and progress will be slow. We’ll know in less than a week.

The new trade agreement with China looks like a pure win for the EU. EU businesses will no longer be subject to the technology sharing and joint venture requirements that the Chinese imposed as a condition of doing business in the Middle Kingdom for years. Why would the Chinese government make that unilateral concession?

Because, for them, the significance of the agreement is geopolitical, not economic. China is more or less self-sufficient on tech issues at this point; it no longer needs the old technology sharing requirements. What it does need is EU neutrality in the battles to come with the United States. What better way to keep the Europeans quiet than to create political and economic leverage by making doing business with China more profitable for their companies? And what better time to do it, before Biden takes office and tries to ally himself with the EU against China on trade issues?

It’s a preemptive strike–a Trojan Horse with Chinese characteristics. Unlike Mr. America First, Biden is worried about it. He should be.

I have vivid memories of the night in March when I finally realized the severity of the problem; it was the day the sports world started shutting down, and it was announced that Tom Hanks and his wife had the virus. Prior to that, I was perfectly aware of the virus, but it wasn’t impacting my life, and it seemed too remote to matter that much. I thought it was a blip, not a chasm.

I wasn’t the only one. Donald Trump, with much better information, initially did the same thing. I could forgive him for that. The issue with him was that he refused to learn anything afterwards. He was entrenched in his view that he was going to win the election by looking strong and boosting the economy, so he consistently downplayed the virus, insisted that it would disappear, demanded that states be opened up regardless of the evidence, and made refusing to wear a mask a culture war issue. He made things much worse than they needed to be.

His complete insensitivity to the chaos and misery caused by the virus, even more than the incompetence of his response, cost him the election. If there was a silver lining to the pandemic, that was it.

Things will improve in 2021; the question is, how fast? Once the vaccine has been widely distributed, there will be a mountain of private savings to be spent by wealthy people on travel, entertainment, and other consumer experiences. Confidence will return, and life for everyone will get better. That is, if you’re still alive to enjoy it.

According to Politico, a group of newly-elected GOP House members, most of them women or minorities, has formed to do battle with the Squad and socialism. They are calling themselves the Force. Is that good news?

Yes, because AOC and her friends have spent far more of their time and energy attacking the mainstream of the Democratic Party than Republicans, whom they apparently view as being unworthy of their consideration. It would be nice to see them engaging in a battle with the GOP over the merits of socialism. If they prevail, so much the better for them; if not, they will have no justification for attacking Biden and the rest of the center-left.

(It’s December, 2020. The pandemic is raging. Infections, hospitalizations, and deaths have reached new heights. In the meantime, Trump is sulking at Mar-a-Lago and refusing to do any work. He has actually gone so far as to lock the door to his bedroom, and he won’t come out.

Mike Pence arrives and bangs on the door.)

P: Mr. President, please come out! The country needs you! You alone can put an end to the pandemic!

T: What’s it to me? America betrayed me! I made the country great again, and they made me a loser! A LOSER! I’m not a loser, no matter what they say!

P: Mr. President, thousands of people are dying!

T: They’re probably all Democrats. That’s fine with me. They don’t respect my pain. They even rejoice in it!

P: But if you come out and solve the vaccine distribution problems, you’ll be a hero! History will vindicate you! Isn’t that enough?

T: Not if I’m a loser. I’d rather be dead. Leave me alone.

P: Well, if you won’t come out, at least authorize me to deal with the distribution problems. Someone has to save America!

T: All right. Do whatever you think you have to do.

(Pence leaves. A few days later, a White House aide bangs on the door with terrible news.)

A: Mr. President, the Vice President has died from the virus!

T: I’m sort of sorry to hear that. He did suck up to me most of the time.

A: Now we really need you! Please come out and fight the virus! Do it for Mike!

T: Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should do it. After all I alone can save the American people. I could do it again! They’d be sorry they voted for Biden! Maybe they’d even change their minds and put me back in office!

Nah. They’re not worth it. But I’ll tell you what–I’ll go play golf instead! Bring me my clubs at once!

Joe Biden had a simple theory of the case: Twitter was not the Democratic Party, let alone America. Moderates, many of them elderly, were a majority of the party, if not the activists. If he united them, he would win.

It was clear even after Iowa that he was right; the real question is whether he had enough support, and could perform well enough, to be the last man standing in the moderate lane. Things were looking grim after Nevada. However, black voters in South Carolina saved his bacon. Mayor Pete, Klobuchar, and Bloomberg dropped out within a matter of days after learning that they didn’t have meaningful support in the minority community, leaving Biden in a one-on-one battle with Sanders. After that, everything fell into place, and the rest of the campaign was a formality, particularly when the pandemic intruded.

Even red Americans were appalled by the video footage of the murder (I can’t call it anything else) of George Floyd. That episode, in addition to some others and Trump’s insensitive and opportunistic response, dramatically increased support for Black Lives Matter and public consciousness of racism in general. It appeared to some optimists that a transformative moment on race had arrived.

As I anticipated, the left overplayed its hand. Calls to “defund the police” went nowhere with an American public raised on cop shows and inundated with local news about violent crime. Most Americans concluded that racial problems with law enforcement were confined to a few bad apples, and were not systemic. Calls for reparations fell on deaf ears. The 1619 Project, which portrayed America as an evil racist empire redeemed only slightly by the courage and faith of people of color, became a talking point for the right, not the left, during the campaign.

The GOP cranked up the culture wars, and would have won but for Trump’s refusal to take the pandemic seriously. So where does BLM go from here? Acknowledge that the problems are different in different state and local jurisdictions, organize to solve them where they exist, and focus as much on winning hearts and minds as on political action. Favorable portrayals of minorities in the media are more effective ways of generating public sympathy from the white majority than in-your-face gambits like the 1619 Project.

A prominent young GOP activist named Charlie Kirk created a bit of a sensation by implicitly arguing that Biden’s victory was illegitimate because he carried a small percentage of counties in this country. The logical conclusion from this, of course, is that the votes of blue Americans in urban and suburban areas should be worth less than the votes of real (i.e., white Christian) Americans in rural areas.

From the Republican point of view, this truly is an outrage. Fortunately, there is a solution: give livestock 3/5 of a vote! That will restore the balance and give rural residents the political primacy they so richly deserve!

If you think that’s ridiculous, just remember that slaves had no more rights than farm animals prior to 1865, and they were counted as 3/5 of a person under the Constitution. This helped to maintain the voting strength of the South. Are the situations that different?

Trump’s most consistent persona is a right-wing talk show host; grifter-in-chief is who he is, not what he plays. Occasionally, however, he digs into his bag of tricks from “The Apprentice” and gives us a dose of reality TV. So it was with the Covid relief bill, which he has now decided to sign after creating a completely unnecessary cliffhanger over the last few days.

This latest episode is not likely to endear him to anyone, including his most devoted fans. He would be wise to stick to channeling his inner Rush Limbaugh in his remaining days of relevance.

It feels like an eternity ago, but at this time last year, I was composing parodies of Christmas carols about impeachment. Doesn’t that seem hopelessly quaint now?

There was never any possibility that Trump would be removed from office regardless of the magnitude of his crimes. The Democrats’ objectives consequently were: (1) to make the necessary stand for constitutional government; (2) to dig up and publicize as much information as possible about Trump’s dirty dealings with Ukraine; (3) to get some level of GOP support for removal; and (4) to avoid a backlash. On balance, they accomplished all of these objectives.

In a normal year, impeachment would have been a hot topic during the campaign. In 2020, it barely made a ripple. The year was dominated by the pandemic and the corresponding recession. More on those in future posts.