Trump Meets Nemesis, Punisher of Hubris. A virus exposes the folly of what the president's base believes.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Trump Meets Nemesis, Punisher of Hubris.
A virus exposes the folly of what the president's base believes.
Author: Bret Stephens
Date: Mar. 14, 2020
From: The New York Times
The word ''nemesis'' is too often misused. We tend to think of it as meaning a powerful, nefarious, but ultimately conquerable enemy: Vader; Voldemort; the Wicked Witch of the West. But the original Nemesis was not a villain. She was a goddess -- an implacable agent of justice who gives the arrogant, insolent and wicked what they deserve.
As a matter of public health, nobody should ever suggest that the novel coronavirus represents any form of justice, divine or otherwise. It's a virus that must be stopped.
As a matter of politics, however, it's hard to think of a mechanism so uniquely well-suited for exposing the hubris, ignorance, prejudice, mendacity and catastrophic self-regard of the president who is supposed to lead us through this crisis.
A few points to mention.
Alternative facts. In recent days, conservative pundits appear to have been scandalized by the suggestion that the coronavirus is Donald Trump's Chernobyl. They miss the point, which is not that the virus is a nuclear furnace. It's that the same absence of trust that pervaded the relationship between the Soviet regime and its people also pervades the relationship between much of America and its president.
A leader who cannot be believed will not be followed, even, or especially, in periods of emergency. If Trump's supporters now wonder why Americans won't rally around the president as they did around George W. Bush after 9/11, there's the answer.
America First. Trump didn't fail to insert his favorite catchphrase into his speech on Wednesday. As usual, it managed to combine jingoism with bad policy. Instead of boasting, he could have learned from South Korea how to test better. Instead of trying to talk down the threat, he could have learned from Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to speak about it far more honestly. Instead of offering rosy guesses of what the ultimate case fatality rate might be, he could have learned from Germany's Angela Merkel to teach Americans some sobering math.
Putting America First -- a slogan -- first, means putting Americans -- real ones -- last.
Build the wall. ''The virus remains low-risk domestically because of the containment actions taken by this administration since the first of the year.'' So said a White House spokesman late last month, following the president's monomaniacal belief that there's hardly a problem in America that can't be fixed by building a wall, shutting a port, booting a migrant, imposing a tariff, or blaming a foreigner -- right down to a ''foreign virus.''
Except that containment turned out to have dwindling returns once the virus moved beyond China, squandering time and resources while creating a false sense of geographic immunity. Had the White House abandoned its ideological obsession a month ago and instead urged or mandated social distancing from the start, we'd be in a better place now.
Drain the swamp. The administration's other core belief is that America is in the evil grip of the ''administrative state.'' But while it's one thing to pare federal bloat and curb bureaucratic overreach, what we have now is a White House that can't distinguish between muscle and fat, essential government and excess.
Hence the disconnect between the president's airy promise that the coronavirus test is available to all who need it, and the sobering reality that kits are in critically low supply. Hence also the astonishing congressional testimony this week by the White House's acting budget director that he's sticking to his proposal to slash the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of broader cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Very stable genius. Millions of Trump's supporters aren't blind to the president's clownishness and ignorance. But they've been relatively indifferent to both, because they find the first entertaining and the second irrelevant to his overall performance. Who cares what a president knows about epidemiology, so long as the markets are up?
They care now. The coronavirus has exposed the falsehood of so many notions Trump's base holds about the presidency: that experts are unnecessary; that hunches are a substitute for knowledge; that competence in administration is overrated; that every criticism is a hoax; and that everything that happens in Washington is B.S. Above all, it has devastated the conceit that having an epic narcissist in the White House is a riskless proposition at a time of extreme risk.
Will Trump's declaration of a national emergency change this?
Maybe, and the president has a belated opportunity to demonstrate seriousness he has lacked so far. But nobody should forget that such seriousness would only be a function of political expediency. Should coronavirus recede in warmer weather, you can depend on Trump to declare his premature victory -- not warn that winter is coming.
It should not have had to take a deadly virus to expose this presidency for what it is. But it's fitting that it has. A man who thinks he can twist every truth to suit his needs has at last discovered that he cannot twist the truths of nature and of one of nature's gods. Her name remains Nemesis.
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People who will support Trump in the face of thousands of lies , and who is not believable in times of crisis, are the problem in this country today. THE problem. Only when we understand that will anything get better.
I'm having a tough time with context. It seems your answer is killing off half of the electorate.
Kind of wondering if he has heard of the corona virus, if he still thinks that Trump being President is a bigger problem.
Things are getting better as we speak, thanks to Trump's leadership and positive direction.
The real problem in this country is left, and those who support them.
This column should embarrass the writer and anyone who supports it.
"To be sure, the president isn’t responsible for either the coronavirus or the disease it causes, COVID-19, and he couldn’t have stopped it from hitting our shores even if he had done everything right. Nor is it the case that the president hasn’t done anything right; in fact, his decision to implement a travel ban on China was prudent. And any narrative that attempts to pin all of the blame on Trump for the coronavirus is simply unfair. The temptation among the president’s critics to use the pandemic to get back at Trump for every bad thing he’s done should be resisted, and schadenfreude is never a good look."
I've been criticizing Trump for 5 years. He has not, for one second, been qualified or fit to be president of the United States. Why are you posting that quote on my seed?
Funny !
Business is Great for "Supporting American Families" under his "Presidency" !
My "Families" happy, Happy, Happy ...… yours ?
"Why are you posting that quote on my seed?"
YOUR article does note ….. "Coronavirus"......Right ?
Do you actually know what you put out on NT, or do you just "Flood" NT with Negative Trump stuff, without "Reading".
All your clowning does not make him qualified to be president of the United States.
I apologies to you for being a "Deplorable" !
Now.....could ya climb outa that "Teeny Tiny Little car" another time. It makes me "Laugh" !
All your clowning does not make him qualified to be president of the United States.
And all your vitriol directed at Trump and all who voted for him does not make him unqualified to be President.
See how it works now?
Why are you even posting an article that is full of lies and untruths.
Was Hillary qualified?
Are Biden and Bernie even remotely qualified?
The answer is a loud and resounding NO!
I feel sorry for Perrie that her site gets polluted with Trumpster nonsense every day now for five years.
It is a profound embarrassment.
Why are you embarrassed?
I mean, you haven't shown you are embarrassed with your daily plague of "I Hate Trump" articles, so why be embarrassed at this late date?
Sorry enough to take a break from the daily "I Hate Trump" articles?
I'm betting big on "no".
Your Constant 666 calls...… doesn't make him less qualified.
From your linked article:
I really admire how hard the author of this managed to prove Reagan right.
And the ability to pack so many falsehoods into a single paragraph--truly amazing!
What a sad area of focus in the context of the current crisis. Get your priorities straight.