The Trump Administration has quietly and effectively been shifting gears over the last few weeks. Trump continues to pay lip service to the medical experts and is even willing to occasionally acknowledge that social distancing has prevented a greater loss of life. Nevertheless, it appears that he has decided that he hasn't got a chance of being reelected if the pandemic induced economic downturn continues. Trump has concluded that the only viable option available to him is to reopen the economy as soon as possible and hope that it recovers sufficiently in time for the election in November.
Even as his administration was rolling out a reasonable outline for reopening the economy, Trump was tweeting support for protests against stay-at-home orders by many of the nation's governors. Since then, he has also given his support to governors (like Georgia Governor Kemp) who have announced plans to reopen their states - plans that do not follow the standard laid out in his own administration's guidelines! Moreover, his so called "Attorney General" William Barr has announced that the Justice Department will likely join challenges to stay-at-home orders in the courts.
At first, Trump claimed he had the authority to reopen the economy on his own. When that blew up, he acknowledged that the individual governors had the authority to reopen their states, and then he quietly set about the task of putting pressure on them to do just that. The strategy appears to be - shift the blame for the economic meltdown to these governors and their stay-at-home orders and force them to abandon the restrictions that they've put in place to protect their citizens.
How can he put people's lives at risk and open the country up to a second wave of the virus? By claiming that the damage to the economy has put more lives and livelihoods at risk than the virus itself! We begin to see the outlines of this hateful and cynical mantra taking shape: We must risk losing a few lives for the greater good! This is social Darwinism at its "finest" - the weak and vulnerable must give way to the strong and invincible! And, when the death toll climbs, they will dismiss it as the cost of survival.
It is my fervent hope that the majority of folks will not fall for this crap, but none of us should be under any illusion that we are all in this together. It is now clear that some of us have opted out of the crusade against Covid-19!
Even as his administration was rolling out a reasonable outline for reopening the economy, Trump was tweeting support for protests against stay-at-home orders by many of the nation's governors. Since then, he has also given his support to governors (like Georgia Governor Kemp) who have announced plans to reopen their states - plans that do not follow the standard laid out in his own administration's guidelines! Moreover, his so called "Attorney General" William Barr has announced that the Justice Department will likely join challenges to stay-at-home orders in the courts.
At first, Trump claimed he had the authority to reopen the economy on his own. When that blew up, he acknowledged that the individual governors had the authority to reopen their states, and then he quietly set about the task of putting pressure on them to do just that. The strategy appears to be - shift the blame for the economic meltdown to these governors and their stay-at-home orders and force them to abandon the restrictions that they've put in place to protect their citizens.
How can he put people's lives at risk and open the country up to a second wave of the virus? By claiming that the damage to the economy has put more lives and livelihoods at risk than the virus itself! We begin to see the outlines of this hateful and cynical mantra taking shape: We must risk losing a few lives for the greater good! This is social Darwinism at its "finest" - the weak and vulnerable must give way to the strong and invincible! And, when the death toll climbs, they will dismiss it as the cost of survival.
It is my fervent hope that the majority of folks will not fall for this crap, but none of us should be under any illusion that we are all in this together. It is now clear that some of us have opted out of the crusade against Covid-19!
DO NOT agree!
ReplyDeleteKeep watching - we'll see how this all plays out!
ReplyDeleteI have been in a stay-at-home mode since early March. Although, I'm retired and don't need to worry about going to work - I can certainly empathize with most people who do need to work. The massive shutting down of our economy (and most of the world's) is not sustainable - it has to reopen at some point fairly soon.
ReplyDeleteThe delicate tight-rope walk is how to do it while keeping the COVID-19 from a massive resurgence. This is something that all officials in government and the medical services are grappling with. But, it has to done. The world's economy can't remain shut down without massive breakdown which could be even more dire than the Great Depression. If that happens, the massive hardship to millions (and even deaths to many) could be unprecedented.
As for President Trump: Yes, he has made some mistakes and at first - he, and most others, didn't realize the seriousness of the pandemic. Mr. Trump also has a tendency to speak what he thinks without "thinking first" before he speaks. I also have felt uneasy and disheartened about some of the President's comments - but I do believe he sincerely wants to see the country and world recover from this health crisis. I don't think he is just thinking about his election and politics.
If I had to choose between our current president and the current Democrat candidate who seems to have some personal cognitive difficulties, I would favor our president.
I watched Frontline last night. The story was about COVID-19:
Link: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/films/
Dean
Our health professionals have told us what is needed to reopen our economy safely. The Trump Administration has issued guidelines based on the advice of these professionals. We need testing and tracking on a much more massive scale than we are currently doing. If the goal is to open the economy in as safe a manner as possible, then we should be doing everything within our power to meet the testing and tracking capabilities which those health professionals say that we need. The speed with which that is accomplished is directly related to the speed with which we can reopen the economy. By the way, those of us who support our governors, are also eager to see folks go back to work and ache to hold our loved ones once again.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness to Trump, he did back off of his endorsement of the Georgia Governor's back to work order. That is a positive development! Let's get that testing going so everyone can go back to work in a safer fashion.
ReplyDeleteGeorgia isn't the only state that is reopening:
ReplyDeletehttps://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/494635-here-are-the-states-moving-toward-reopening-this-weekend