[BostonCard]

Bringing this back to C-19, between the two of them, the partisans made the political consensus that is the necessary prerequisite for acceptance of a regime this drastic, and this unprecedented, impossible to achieve. You can cite disgracefully insouciant tweets by Trump, or disgracefully insouciant criticism by Democrats. Take your pick. It gets you nowhere. This would have been a tough sell even for a super-popular President, and it just wasn't there. The public had to have its nose rubbed in the reality of this thing, and you can't do that while everyone is sniping on a personality (or anti-personality) basis.



That's my take, and now I am done.

The "they are opposing everything because it is Trump" is overblown.  Democrats and Republicans came together to in near unanimity pass a  $2 trillion economic package.  Democrats could have sunk the bill in the House or filibustered it in the Senate, but they didn't.  And they were wise not to; I think they would have (righteously) come under a lot of criticism had they held it up.  And now it looks like we are going to pass another rescue package.  For an intractably divided government, and for an opposition party that supposedly is dead set against anything the president wants, that's pretty impressive.

Look, if Trump had advocated more aggressive measures and Democratic governors had resisted them at every turn because they were suggested by Trump, then I think it would be appropriate to criticize the Democratic governors who resisted.  But he didn't and the federal response has been incompetent and its message counterproductive, so it is very appropriate to criticize it.

Indeed, even across states there has been variability in how local officials responded.  I think Mayor London Breed in San Francisco and Governor Newsom for the California have worked together better and been more aggressive than Andrew Cuomo and Bill DeBlasio in New York.  Mike DeWine, the Republican governor of Ohio has done a nice job in a way that Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida has not.

There are times when "a pox on both houses" is appropriate.  But this is a time when a pox on the house who screwed up the response is appropriate.

BC

[BostonCard]

Bringing this back to C-19, between the two of them, the partisans made the political consensus that is the necessary prerequisite for acceptance of a regime this drastic, and this unprecedented, impossible to achieve. You can cite disgracefully insouciant tweets by Trump, or disgracefully insouciant criticism by Democrats. Take your pick. It gets you nowhere. This would have been a tough sell even for a super-popular President, and it just wasn't there. The public had to have its nose rubbed in the reality of this thing, and you can't do that while everyone is sniping on a personality (or anti-personality) basis.



That's my take, and now I am done.

The "they are opposing everything because it is Trump" is overblown.  Democrats and Republicans came together to in near unanimity pass a  $2 trillion economic package.  Democrats could have sunk the bill in the House or filibustered it in the Senate, but they didn't.  And they were wise not to; I think they would have (righteously) come under a lot of criticism had they held it up.  And now it looks like we are going to pass another rescue package.  For an intractably divided government, and for an opposition party that supposedly is dead set against anything the president wants, that's pretty impressive.

Look, if Trump had advocated more aggressive measures and Democratic governors had resisted them at every turn because they were suggested by Trump, then I think it would be appropriate to criticize the Democratic governors who resisted.  But he didn't and the federal response has been incompetent and its message counterproductive, so it is very appropriate to criticize it.

Indeed, even across states there has been variability in how local officials responded.  I think Mayor London Breed in San Francisco and Governor Newsom for the California have worked together better and been more aggressive than Andrew Cuomo and Bill DeBlasio in New York.  Mike DeWine, the Republican governor of Ohio has done a nice job in a way that Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida has not.

There are times when "a pox on both houses" is appropriate.  But this is a time when a pox on the house who screwed up the response is appropriate.

BC