Who Let the Dogs Out?

In what can only be described as an "unpresidented" move, Trump urged his supporters on twitter to "liberate" Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia, where he claims the lockdowns are too severe.

Trump probably feels he is himself a victim of these lockdowns, essentially having been placed under house arrest until health experts deem it safe to reopen society.  He hasn't been able to stage any rallies or go play golf, his two favorite pastimes.  He's stuck inside the White House where the only contact he has with the outside world is through his press briefings and twitter feed.  That's rough for a man who is used to basking in the adulation of his supporters.

However, you would think his advisers would ask him to tone down the rhetoric, especially given that fully two-thirds of Americans are very worried about facing an open society again in the age of coronavirus.

Throughout this crisis, Trump has played to his base.  In late February, he was calling the virus the Democrats' "new hoax" at a rally in South Carolina.  When he finally did recognize the severity of the crisis, he started pitching  hydroxychloroquine cocktails, infamously repeating "what do you have to lose?"  So, it is little surprise he is now supporting the protests around the country against state lockdowns, having been informed that he has no power to lift them after declaring this week he has "total authority" to reopen the economy.

Trump is having a hard time coming to terms with his impotence.  The United States is not Russia.  He cannot rule by decree as Vladimir Putin does.  He is seeing many of these states form pacts in the wake of his petulant executive pronouncements to organize their own health safety nets and economic advisory boards since they have received little support from the federal government throughout the crisis.  It's a pretty tough pill to swallow for a man who would be king!

However, these latest twitter rages go beyond the pale.  He is encouraging open rebellion, with reference to the second amendment and the right to bear arms.  This isn't the first time.  Trump actively plays on the divisions in the country the same way he did with his contestants on his reality show.  For him, it's just a game on a much larger playing field.

You would think conservative leaders would be deeply concerned.  However, Republican legislatures continue to defy Democratic governors.  In Wisconsin, the conservative state legislature insisted on an election, ignoring the many lives at stake by going to polls.  The motive was to retain their state supreme court tyranny, I mean majority, only to still lose the highly prized state court seat to a liberal woman candidate.  It is one of the many political setbacks they have suffered in recent months, largely because many Americans now view the Republican Party as the Party of Trump, and want to be rid of this never-ending nightmare.

Trump appears oblivious to sinking approval ratings.  As long as he has command of the Republican Party, he believes himself in control of the nation, but even this support appears to be waning in the wake of his awful response to the pandemic.

To say he has been all over the place is an understatement.  You don't know from one day to the next what he will say in his press briefings, often issuing false reports as he continues to downplay the severity of the crisis.  His main concern is to get the economy running again.  He doesn't care how many lives are at risk.  Our favorite celebrities doctors at first endorsed this view, only to have since apologized for their callous statements.  Not Donald Trump.

The only problem is that he can't reopen the economy on his own.  He needs the consent of state governors, many of whom are reticent to relax the restrictions as it has seen a "flattening of the curve" in their states.  They are not prepared to deal with an exponential rise in coronavirus cases if they reopen schools and businesses across their states.  They will ultimately pay the price for their decisions, not Donald Trump.

Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti has gone so far as to suggest the city will ban all large gatherings, including concerts and sports events, for the remainder of the year.  This flies in the face of Trump's determination to get professional sports back this summer.  It wasn't hard to convince Vince McMahon to stage a Wrestlemania event with only a television audience.  He took a pretty hard hit with his fledgling XFL, thanks to coronavirus, and wasn't going to let a little flu bug topple his empire.  Unfortunately, one of the wrestlers came down with coronavirus as a result.  It is doubtful major league baseball or professional football would be willing to take such risks.

We remain in uncharted territory.  You can go with the herd immunity theory if you like, but are you willing to sacrifice one or two percent of your population in the process?  After Boris Johnson came down with coronavirus, the UK very quickly rethought its strategy and is now extending its lockdown indefinitely.

Most countries will only consider reopening their societies if they have a major testing and tracking program in place to fully monitor the spread of the virus.  A clueless Donald Trump thinks the matter is under control, despite the diminishing number of tests being administered across the country.  At best, the US conducts about 100,000 tests per day.  In a population of 327 million it would take 9 years to test the country at this rate!

This is why so many persons have lost confidence in the ability of the federal government to deal with the crisis.  Congress has not taken a significant role in this other than to appropriate spending bills.  It is up to the White House to disseminate this relief but has done its typically poor job in doing so.  Not only is badly needed medical relief not getting to the states, but the attempt to alleviate small businesses got off to a very rocky start, and the $1200 checks personally signed by the president have yet to get to their recipients in any significant number and are expected to last 10 weeks!

The burden has largely fallen on the states as a result, and many of them are struggling mightily to keep up with the crisis, namely New York, the hardest hit state.  They don't need a restless president encouraging its citizens to defy state lockdowns.