A perspective of life in the United States during an epidemic, based upon conversations with Michael L. Roberts, and in conjunction with The American Chronicle podcast series.
So here I am. Finally, here on the Eastern Seaboard, in the city of my dreams; Boston, Massachusetts. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, but thanks to coronavirus, there’s not a damn thing to do. Except, perhaps, chronicle these rather strange times…
Episode VI
Old-style politics is beginning to rear its head for the first time in weeks, as a variety of issues compete for headlines with the Coronavirus. There are efforts underway to pass even more financial assistance legislation, as unemployment reaches ever higher figures. However, not only are there challenges within the Senate in terms of trying to get this legislation together, both Democrats and the Republicans trying to bolt their own policy requirements onto this document. The president is talking about delaying the release of funds and one of the areas that he is focusing upon is the US Postal Service, as he seeks to make sure the Postal Service increases the cost of sending packages, suggesting that it is being taken advantage of by Amazon and other delivery services. For several weeks people have been suggesting that Donald Trump will cast some doubts over the results of the presidential election in November if he loses. One way to do so is to cast doubt over postal ballots, which would be dealt with by the US Postal Service. Therefore, the greater doubt President Trump can cast over postal voting, and by extension the Postal Service, the better for his election campaign.
The Trump presidency moved beyond the bounds of satire this week, as the American citizenry were advised to use ultraviolet light on themselves or ingest bleach in an attempt to stem the spread of the Coronavirus. Trying to stay relevant in this age of craziness, Saturday Night Live hired Brad Pitt to play Dr Fauci, speculating upon the good doctor’s oft-rumored removal from office. Four years ago, Trump supporters insisted that the media needed to “take him seriously, but not literally,” suggesting that the media were taking him literally, but not seriously. Apparently, the media were not alone, with stories merging this week that, perhaps unsurprisingly, Americans have been admitted to hospital for having listened to the president and followed his advice, consuming deadly products. Having ended up in hospital, if they survive ingesting toxic fluids, they could end up being exposed to the very virus that they were trying to avoid in the first place.
There had been hopes that the daily press briefings would act as a substitute for the large-scale presidential rallies, which would have been a stable of the president’s reelection campaign. Since these have been prevented by the Coronavirus, a nightly, presidential press briefing played into Donald Trump’s image of himself as a great communicator, who can convince anybody of anything. What is notable however is how those are clearly backfired and you’re starting to see that in the polls. Following the latest backlash, this time against his suggestion that Americans, President Trump’s daily press briefings have been suspended. The White House has decided that they are apparently not worth the time or the effort, claiming that the media is misrepresenting what the president has been saying. Unfortunately for the White House, the media has been doing precisely what they wanted, which is to broadcast the president’s remarks live and un-edited, unfortunately stating things that are demonstrably untrue. Unable, therefore, to claim to have been mis-quoted, Trump is now suggesting that he was being sarcastic, insisting as much to one particular journalist, who, it was imediaely noted, had not been in the particular briefing session Trump was referring to. The president’s problem is that if you want to get someone in trouble, put them in front of a microphone and let him talk; eventually they’ll talk themselves into trouble. This has certainly happened to Donald Trump over the last week. He has often issued incendiary statements, but they have attracted as many people as they have repelled. Now he has strayed into areas where he clearly has no clue whatsoever, taking snake oil salesmanship to a whole new level.
This unforced error was compounded by the president’s continuing insistence on singling out female reporters out for his ire. The White House sought to move CNN’s White House correspondent, Kaitlin Collins, from her front row seat to the back of the room and sought to get the Secret Service to enforce this. Despite this attempt, it was made immediately clear that despite this being the president’s house, he has no authority to move journalists in the press briefing room, a responsible that rests with the White House Correspondence Association. The frustration that this combination of media-related setbacks had on the presidential psyche was apparent in a series of Tweets, in which Trump suggested that journalists who had won the ‘Noble Peace Prize’ were on the wrong side of history and should return their prizes. Correct side of history or not, the ‘Nobel Prize’ winning journalists can likely hold onto their awards, if for no other reason than they can at least spell, which apparently is one step ahead of the American president.
The suspension of the presidential press briefings coincides with word that Republicans across the country are getting wary. They are not necessarily ready to speak out against the president, but they are starting to run away from Donald Trump, to focus on local issues and talk about anything other than the present. As long as they are having to talk about Trump, the less they are able to talk about what is important to the American citizens in their state. This is a shift within the Republican Party, which, only a few weeks ago, was convinced it would retain the Senate, would retain the presidency, and pick up a couple of seats in the House of Representatives. None of that now seems likely. There are increasing concerns amongst the Republican Party that it might well lose control of United States Senate, lose ground in the House, and that Donald Trump’s reelection is no longer as assured as it was just four weeks ago. Donald Trump ran for office and spent three and a half years as president boasting about his ability to increase American wealth, noting that if Hillary Clinton had been elected the American economy would crashed and that unemployment would have soared. That nightmare scenario is exactly where we are with just six months to go until the next American presidential election. While it is difficult to blame Donald Trump for all of this, he was determined to take credit for three and a half years of economic prosperity, so he must now take responsibility for what happens in the last six months of his term. The Coronavirus is having as devastating impact on the president’s reelection campaign and the campaign strategies of Republicans around the country who are running for office or running for re-election in November.
Despite the president’s problems, Joe Biden is struggling to get any attention. In any other year he would have been out about meeting and greeting, holding rallies and raising money. This year, he is having to compete with the president from his basement, in Delaware, struggling to get the word out, or to raise funds. Joe Biden is not on the television, and the only time he is being discussed at the moment is in regard to an allegation that he may have assaulted a former congressional aide when he was a senator several decades ago. This is hardly the kind of press Joe Biden or the Democrats want at this point. One thing that Biden does have going for him, however, is that the Democratic Party is unified, with all of his former challengers for the nomination having now fallen in line. They have clearly looked back to what happened four years ago and realized that the longer they keep their hat in the ring, the more likely it was that a potential Bernie Sanders candidacy emerged from the Democratic primary season. The Democratic Party can now unite around a moderate candidate, which presents a challenge for Republicans who had expected to allege that socialists had hijacked the Democratic Party and nominated Bernie Sanders as their leader. Trump and his allies would have initiated a scorched-earth campaign, going after Sanders and the politics of the left, just as Nixon did against George McGovern in 1972. Now that the left has been effectively silenced, it becomes very difficult for Donald Trump to label Joe Biden, a relatively bland, centrist Democrat, as being a dangerous socialist. We are faced, therefore, with the prospect of two old, white men in their seventies running for the most powerful office in the world, raising doubts about their capacity to survive a four-year term in office. As a result, questions are being asked about who Biden’s vice-presidential pick might be. He has made it clear he is going to select a woman, causing several names to be mentioned as his potential running mate. Stacy Abrams of Georgia has put herself forward in a big piece in The Atlantic, detailing why she believes she should be the vice-presidential pick for Joe Biden. It is extraordinary for someone to put themselves forward in such a manner, since once upon a time, American presidents didn’t even run for election, they stood for election. Candidates agreed to allow their names to be put forward if people wished to vote for them, but they certainly didn’t actively seek the office. The idea that people are now actively campaigning to be selected as vice president is really stepping things up, and it’s likely to backfire upon her.
With Joe Biden emerging as the presumptive nominee, it is apparent that Barack Obama’s legacy will be on the ballot in November. That legacy is very much in the balance, to an extent he can likely hardly imagine. Obama was a two term Democratic president who everybody expected to be followed by Hillary Clinton. This would have been two epoch making presidencies in succession: the first African American president, followed by the first female American president. In retrospect, however, it appears that Barack Obama simply didn’t do enough to make sure that Hillary Clinton was elected in 2016. It is possible that Obama, like many Americans, figured that Hillary couldn’t lose, and that, therefore, he didn’t have to do that much. It is also possible that Obama felt that his presidency would look all the more impressive by way of contrast if Trump were elected. It would appear even more erudite, more impressive, with a greater record of success in office, passing Obamacare, opening relations with Cuba, negotiating the Paris climate change agreement and the Iran nuclear deal would all look more impressive if Donald Trump floundered and ended up as a failed, one-term president. Certainly, Obama’s presidency, in the eyes of some, now looks better, but it is also being erased from history. Donald Trump has sought to remove all traces of Obama from American history books; he has erased his deal with Cuba, withdrawn from the Paris Climate Change Agreement, is dismantling Obamacare, and has pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Agreement. It is widely considered that if Obama had cured cancer, Donald Trump would bring it back. Obama’s presidency is being erased from history by Donald Trump to such a degree that if Trump gets a second term, students of American politics may eventually ask, Obama who?