Here’s a vintage Trumpian square circle for you:
Go figure. He hasn’t.
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.
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:
So why is Douthat going to so much trouble to defend someone he despises? That will be the subject of my next post.
Trump’s theory is that the polls don’t accurately describe his level of support, because many of his voters are reluctant to be associated with him. Is he right?
Two observations are pertinent. First, if you’re embarrassed to vote for someone, you probably shouldn’t. Second, the Trump voters I know are militant in their support; they fly flags and plaster their pickup trucks with bumper stickers. They’re about as far from shy as you can get. It’s the Biden voters who are shy, at least in public.
Like most of what he says and apparently believes, I think this is a delusion. We’ll see.
Conservative Libertarians are a relatively principled group, but when confronted with facts which contradict their beliefs in extremely limited government and individualism, they tend to retreat into denialism. And so, if you talk about the booming Chinese economy, they will tell you that its implosion is imminent, because, according to their logic, it just has to be. The CL response to the pandemic, which can only be resolved through collective action, is to file lawsuits alleging the unconstitutionality of lockdowns (Reactionaries seek the same end by demonstrating with guns.) With climate change, of course, the easiest approach is to deny that it exists, and so they do.
The thing about climate change is that you cannot avoid the costs; you either pay the price in prevention, or in the cleanup afterwards. The ongoing wildfires are a classic example of that phenomenon. CLs really should be getting behind a carbon tax, because it is the most individual and market-friendly mitigation measure that is available to us. Will they? As of now, they would rather just deny.
Florida infection rates having fallen from appalling to merely bad, Governor DeSantis is declaring victory again. He is opening bars and planning to lift restrictions on indoor dining in restaurants. One assumes that he thinks deregulation will lead to a boom and a GOP triumph in November. Doesn’t it always?
We’ve seen this movie before. The coming influx of seasonal residents, combined with the looser restrictions, the opening of schools, and cooler weather, is going to lead to another wave. DeSantis probably just hopes that it won’t happen until after the election. It isn’t up to him.
Is the glass half full or half empty? That is the essence of the skinny bill question.
Six weeks ago, this was a matter of the utmost importance. McConnell’s theory was that offering $300 per week would be perceived as the glass half full by grateful unemployed workers, and that the corresponding stimulus would help the Trump re-election campaign. The Democrats assumed that the public would see $300 per week as a 50 percent cut, and had no interest in assisting the Trump campaign. They were only willing to provide additional stimulus if it would make a meaningful difference in the lives of unemployed workers, and if aid could also be provided to reeling state and local governments.
Today, the issue has less political significance, because the early voting process has already started in many states, and it would take several weeks for state unemployment bureaucracies to adjust to the new system. There would have been no Election Day stimulus even if the bill had somehow advanced in the Senate. Trump and the GOP will have to settle for what they have.
Don’t be surprised if this comes up again after the election, when the politics are less toxic. There will still be millions of unemployed workers, and they will still need help.
You had to wonder: why did Trump continue to minimize the effects of the virus in the face of the evidence and expert advice? Was he just too stupid to process the information that was given to him?
We have the answer from his own lips–no! He downplayed the virus because he wanted to avoid “panic.” What he means by that is that he was concerned about a falling stock market, a struggling economy, and a threat to his re-election. He just wanted us to get on with our lives in the usual way even if it resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
So he’s a liar, not a moron. Do you find that comforting?
Any normal politician, seeing his country crushed by a pandemic, would simply extend the Brexit deadline. Boris Johnson, however, is not a normal politician. Brexit and chaos are his brand. As a result, he is threatening to renege on the previous deal with the EU over Northern Ireland; in true Trumpian style, he views potential violations of existing agreements as a form of leverage in the current negotiations.
The EU isn’t likely to fall for it. Tearing up deals will destroy the UK’s credibility as a negotiating partner as long as Boris is PM. He can’t afford that in the long run, regardless of what advantages it may give him in the short run.
It is noteworthy that several prominent members of the Conservative Party have expressed their outrage over this tactic. Would any Republicans do the same? You know the answer to that question.
On the 45th President Trump.
The virus has made him a grump.
He admitted he lied.
Countless victims have died
And the country is in a deep slump.
The Battle of France was over. The Wehrmacht was massed on the French coast, seemingly ready to invade Britain. All eyes were on the Prime Minister. What would he say to rally the country?
“Nothing to worry about–we’ve got this covered. The Germans will go away, probably by the fall. They’re not so bad, anyway–Napoleon would have been much worse. And even if they did try to invade, we’ve got a secret weapon that will kill them all. It’ll be incredible. Trust me. Trust me.”
When asked later why he didn’t do more to mobilize the British public against the enemy, Churchill conceded that he was extremely worried about an invasion, but that nothing really could be done about it, and that his job as the nation’s leader was to avoid panic. That, and to make sure he was re-elected.
Florida state government is highly dependent on sales tax revenues, which predictably have plunged as a result of the pandemic. Massive budget cuts are in the offing. Since service cuts and layoffs are bound to be unpopular, however, the governor, presumably with the approval of the rest of the state GOP leadership, has decided to postpone the day of reckoning until after the election.
But what then? What will Roadrunner do when he reaches the cliff? It depends on the outcome of the election. If Biden wins, you will see new stimulus legislation addressing state and local government shortfalls in short order. If Trump wins, however, things become a bit more uncertain. Will the GOP small government fanatics take a victory lap by refusing aid and enforcing cuts all over the country? Or will Trump find a way to bail out his friends and punish his blue state enemies?
Let’s hope we never find out.
The last time we had a dangerously contested election was 1876. That one ended with a deal which involved the withdrawal of federal troops from several southern states and, effectively, the end of Reconstruction. If something similar happens this time, who would make the deal for the GOP, and what would it entail?
The most likely answers to the questions are Mitch McConnell, and something pertaining to judges and the survival of the filibuster.
Donald Trump speaks for all Americans. He is America.
Well, maybe he doesn’t speak for women. Or blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, or Native Americans. Or anyone who lives in a city. Or seculars, Jews, or Muslims.
Or the MSM. Or NBC, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, the WaPo, or the NYT. Or anyone in the entertainment business. Or liberals of any sort. Or anyone with a college education. Or environmentalists, or anyone who works in clean energy.
Or anyone associated with the Big Ten, NASCAR, the NBA, or the NFL. Or the FBI or the CIA. Or the highest ranks of our military. Or the judiciary.
Never mind all of them. Let’s just say that Trump stands for all real Americans–whatever is left.
His infamous protestation notwithstanding, Richard Nixon was, in fact, a crook. But there were two extremely important occasions when he put the nation’s interests ahead of his own. The first, of course, was his resignation, which avoided a divisive, protracted impeachment trial. The less well known episode occurred in 1960, when he accepted the outcome of an election that may have been decided by the votes of dead people in Chicago. It was a precedent for Al Gore’s concession in 2000.
Trump has already put us through the pain of an impeachment trial. Will he follow Nixon’s example if he loses in November?
Of course not. That would require him to care about the condition of the country, which is of no interest to him whatsoever.