So, this is going well.
The United States has the world’s highest number of coronavirus deaths and infections. The European Union is considering a ban on travelers from the U.S.
Unlike most of the rest of the developed world, American cases have not declined. Americans keep dying in unprecedented numbers. Where New York City was once the epicenter of the outbreak, now more-rural Trumplandia is. The acting president keeps fanning the spread by hosting super-spreader events. In Oklahoma. In Arizona.
The southwest is now under severe epidemic pressures. Yet, “accordion hands” insists the virus is “fading away.” These are not the graphs you’re looking at. Move along.
That is not what health professionals on the front lines see. Rachel Maddow Tuesday night featured several from El Centro Medical Center, 100 miles east of San Diego. They themselves are overwhelmed. “This is not the flu. This is a monster.”
Donald Trump believes people who wear masks do so not to suppress the spread of the contagion, but to express disapproval of him. Naturally, his cultish faithful won’t wear them. They may have private doubts about Dear Leader, but wearing a mask is a public confession of apostasy, a scarlet “A” sure to draw the leader’s and fellow cultists’ wrath. Even excommunication. They’ll risk death first and infect others in their paths.
They are out of ICU beds at El Centro Medical Center.
Michelle Goldberg is mighty unimpressed with the federal response:
This is what American exceptionalism looks like under Donald Trump. It’s not just that the United States has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths of any country in the world. Republican political dysfunction has made a coherent campaign to fight the pandemic impossible.
At the federal level as well as in many states, we’re seeing a combination of the blustering contempt for science that marks the conservative approach to climate change and the high tolerance for carnage that makes American gun culture unique.
The rot starts at the top. At the beginning of the crisis Trump acted as if he could wish the coronavirus away, and after an interval when he at least pretended to take it seriously, his administration has resumed a posture of blithe denial.
Is it denial? Or is it worse than that? The stinging ad below suggests intent.
Murder requires intent. Trump sees others as objects of his own gratification. He does not care enough about them to want them to die. He simply does not care if they do.
Unless it makes him look bad.
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For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.
Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.