American is enduring what can only be called a perfect storm of horror: the worst crisis to hit the country since WWII, (or to put it another way, the worst virus outbreak since the 1918 Flu outbreak), combined with the worst possible leader to deal with such a crisis. As of this writing, according to the NY Times database, the US has had over one and a half million cases of the virus and over ninety three thousand deaths. America leads the world in both numbers. When it comes to cases, America has over one million more than Russia, second on the world's list. And when it comes to fatalities, the UK is in second with over fifty thousand less. While America is obviously a big country and our per capita numbers are better, these are still horrible statistics for a country that continually sees itself as the world's leader to have.
While the country suffering from the coronavirus was inevitable, the sheer depth of our suffering was not. Today the New York Times wrote an article about a Columbia University study that found that if America had acted sooner, somewhere around thirty six thousand lives could have been saved. Although defenders of the president will inevitably question that number, the truth of that study can be seen in how much better other countries have been in dealing with the pandemic: South Korea, for example, saw their first reported infected citizen on January twentieth, the same day that the US did, and while we dawdled, they swung into action. Almost immediately they set up drive through tests and administered ten thousand tests a day. Only three hundred people have died from the virus there so far. Or take New Zealand, who's prime minister Jacinda Ardern was praised for her swift action in shutting down her country, resulting in a mere twenty one deaths in her country so far!
Instead of having effective leaders like those countries, the US is stuck with the incompetent, corrupt and at times almost incoherent Donald Trump. Our president has swung wildly in his response, initially downplaying the threat ("It's down to fifteen") and then claiming that he saw it coming all along ("I knew it was going to be a pandemic"). One day he calls for the country to shut down, the next he tweets out support of gun toting protestors who want to end the shut down. And his list of other people responsible have included China, Barack Obama, the World Health Organization and even the briefings from his own intelligence agencies. Add to that his bizarre recommendation about injecting disinfectant, his refusal to wear a face mask, and his admittance that he himself is taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug that has several health risks, and it's obvious to the world that this country is run by a complete buffoon. One that is desperately trying to move on past the pandemic in an attempt to win a second term by distracting the country with whatever he can throw against the wall (Obamagate?).
It gets even worse when one examines the people around him: the president's son in law, Jared Kushner, has decided that creating a failed Middle East plan wasn't enough and has decided to take control of the pandemic response also. The result has been a disaster, with the wildly inexperienced and unqualified Kushner appointing his equally wildly inexperienced and unqualified cronies to important positions in the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It's a situation that one senior executive of that agency described as “a ‘frat party’ that descended from a U.F.O. and invaded the federal government.” The Washington Post has reported that this has added“another layer of confusion and conflicting signals within the White House’s disjointed response to the crisis.” Like his father in law, Kushner has defended and even bragged about his so called accomplishments while shrugging off reports of desperate medical professionals lacking supplies.
While all of this should spell defeat for Trump in November, the sad fact of the matter is that it's hard to count out an incumbent president who has turned his party (and around forty percent of the country) into his own cult. Somehow, a man who's complete and utter incompetence has lead to the needless suffering and death of tens of thousands of Americans may just win again. No wonder the rest of the world pities us.
