Taiwan, South Korea, New Zealand, Iceland and Germany have already moved to reopen their economies, aided by strategic and effective testing. Trump, however, has taken almost every opportunity to make this crisis worse.
Rather than using the federal government’s massive power to alleviate a testing shortage that has lasted long after he said “anyone” could get a test, Trump has targeted medical equipment for political purposes. Rather than reassuring and consoling a suffering nation, he’s distracted us with his time-share salesman takes on unproven drugs and experimental treatments that may be encouraging Americans to inject bleach.
Of course, all this talk about “reopening” is just code for forcing low-paid workers to choose between their lives and their paycheck. The right is happy to go along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s goal of using this crisis to bankrupt the states and rob teachers, firefighters and police officers of their pensions.
As long as Trump is punishing their enemies and propping up the stock market, his agenda is still the Republican agenda. That’s why we can’t imagine the party turning against him.
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