They would if they could profit from it.
Not only that, but a massive public crisis is, generally speaking, the perfectly opportunity for leaders to improve their popularity. Leadership that is strong and decisive, as well as measured and compassionate, can do wonders for a leader’s public support. Hell, just appearing basically competent and mouthing some fairly anodyne platitudes is often enough to lift a leader in the eyes of many people.
Look at the growing public support for people like George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani after 9/11. Both of these guys were limping along with mediocre popularity ratings and unimpressive administrations, and yet in the wake of the terrorist attacks their stature increased massively, even among (some) Democrats. Andrew Cuomo is a douchebag product of political in-breeding and nepotism, whom even plenty of New York Democrats disliked, and yet his coronavirus response has significantly increased his popularity. Just about every world leader’s public support has increased during the pandemic.
Trump and other Republican leaders have simply wasted a massive opportunity to hang onto moderate and independent voters. I’m not saying that Trump and the Republicans can’t still win the November elections, but a good response to this crisis could have helped them considerably. One problem, I guess, is that Trump’s base is more interested in owning the libs than in any sort of political competence, so it’s entirely possible that a measured and compassionate approach—even if it were possible for him—would have lost him votes among the faithful.
If you look at the UK and its poor response, we managed to bring things under control despite our own worst efforts.
You could ask, what actually worked - it certainly was not masks - we were told any masks available needed to go to medical staff and the evidence was that they were only marginally effective at best.
The only thing that succeeded, albeit not soon enough, was the lockdown and social isolation. This was backed up with what amounted to a state supplied wage to those whose income was cut off by the isolation.
Our streets went extremely quiet. Even now as we emerge little by little from the shutdown our streets are very much quieter than normal.
I fear there is a danger that mask usage in the US might be used to give the impression that it will enable less social isolation and in turn greater social contact.
If masks do work, and evidence is stacking up that they do have a useful effect, it still is a fact that lockdown is the most effective way and you really cannot substitute for it.
When there is mass infection I doubt that masks will have enough impact on further spread, but once the spread is under real control then I think the effect of masks will be much more useful.
The use of contact tracing only seems to work once the spread is under control and you have lots of testing - but whilst it is raging contact tracing is just overwhelmed.
I get that lockdown is even more of an anger generator in the US than masks and that at the moment it isn’t seen as something that can be proposed especially in the blue and purple states, but it was done in NY and NJ and the evidence is absolutely apparent.
Its going to take a lot more deaths before anyone might reconsider - but it is already too late, the infections are there and those who are going to die are already in the process of doing so - whether they know it or not
And Trump is trying to hide the statistics because it makes him look bad.That ANYONE supports this petulant child continues to stun my Wife and I at how many total idiots there are in the USA.
I have absolutely NO qualms about calling Trump supporters out for what they are. They own this.
Republicans can’t supports masks and anti-coronavirus tactics because the democrats support those, and the democrats are the devil and everything they do is bad.
If the republicans ever colluded with the democrats on anything that people cared about, that would demonstrate that democrats are capable of being right. And that cannot be allowed, because if people started assessing democrat and republican positions on their actual merits Republican support would pop like a soap bubble.
Very well put.
That support is already in doubt. Trump won with fewer votes.
And the extent of efforts to make it more difficult to vote have already been well documented.
Some of them have already said the quiet part out loud - if everybody eligible voter did so or at least if absentee voting was made easier, the Republicans as currently comprised would lose a lot more elections, including just about every national one.
Well America could soon have company in the unmitigated disaster department.
Anyone else reading Asian or European news outlets? (BBC, CNA, SCMP)
Things are going frighteningly badly in several spots. Africa and India, SAmerica all seem set to explode/are exploding. Several places in Europe are reversing openings etc, in the wave of climbing new infections.
And America is still trying to get a grip on the first wave!
You also had more community ‘buy-in’ there, which is probably the difference maker. As much as I’d like to lay the blame solely with Trump, that’s not telling the entire story, although the same forces that drive his wacky behavior is driving the thought process of anti-maskers.
Americans suffer from a really bad case of “You can’t tell me what to do.” We’ve always had that problem, but things like social media and consumerism run amok have amplified it to destructive levels.
Agree with this.
I’d go further and submit that republicans want a permanent underclass. It’s how their world continues to exist. Republicans need a bottom-rung caste of labor that is so desperate to survive that they’ll work, eat, and sleep in a coal mine.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
Some key parts:
It’s not just the leadership; there’s plenty of average citizen stupidity too:
Her vote counts just as much as any of ours, too.
Yeah, it’s really embarrassing. When you can’t get your shit together as well as Italy did, that’s pretty bad. Italy has contempt for the rules baked into their culture. We just have a Republican Party and Fox News that’s pro-stupid, anti-science, and all about pwning the libs.
If this had been a red-state problem first, I wonder if it would have unfolded differently.
…and yet they are dropping like flies because of the stupidity of the right and idiocy of the idiots who believe them. Sadly those who do not subscribe to such stupdity are also dying as victims of needless idiocy spreaders
I think the sad takeaway is that for a society that identifies itself with Christianity and liberty, America’s definitions of what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be free is just warped in the eyes of those looking in from the outside world.
A lot of Americans say and believe things like “If God wants me to come home, it’s my time, I guess.” It’s a fatalistic worldview which presupposes that God wants them to reject common scientific knowledge, to their detriment and to the detriment of everyone around them. If God calls me home, he calls me home, and if he takes you with me, well that’s all part of God’s plan, too. I think the average European might expect an ISIS fighter to believe this, but not the average American.
Ditto for our views of freedom. The American view of liberty is a destructive one. The American view of liberty is freedom at any cost, that freedom and civic responsibility aren’t tethered. In fact, there is no such thing as civic responsibility - it doesn’t exist. There’s only individual responsibility. The only “responsibility” that matters is being financially self-sufficient no matter what circumstances are thrown your way.
In short, America is a society and a democracy that lacks virtue. A society that lacks virtue…is incompatible with self-governance. When you lack virtue, you inevitably depend on someone else to define what virtue is and you will inevitably find yourself in the position of having them impose and enforce their definition of virtue on you, whether you like it or not.
First? Who knows. Red states hit first and hardest? You bet it would have unfolded differently!
Even in red states, it seems to be considered a ‘blue voter’ problem. Rural Americans view coronavirus as a city problem.
While I am sad for all the collateral damage, the reality is every individual has to be responsible for their own safety at this point. The environment is not safe and people should not act like it is or trivialize the risk. If someone goes shopping wearing an mask with insufficient filtration for the environment, they are accepting that level of risk and the consequences. It’s clear we cannot count on individuals in our community, and each of us needs to understand that and act appropriately. If you don’t have sufficient PPE to go into an environment, you should not go into that environment. Although I see lots of people wearing masks, many of those are made with lightweight materials and/or the masks is worn improperly such that the person is only getting minimal personal protection. The citizens in other countries are clearly better at keeping their environments safe. Unfortunately, those of us who live in America have to take precautions based on what Americans are doing or not doing to keep the environment safe.
Then you don’t have a community. You have a grouping of selfish individuals who will not act in concert, even to save lives.
This is the crux of much of the problem in the United States compared to many other countries; Way too much “fuck you buddy, I only care about myself”. Which really sucks in a pandemic.
Case in point: Sturgis, SD, August 2020.