As I sit in my Miami Beach hotel room under self-quarantine I've been thinking about how this will play out. Will this be the breaking point for Trump, will his gross incompetence be recognized, will his deadly corruption and lack of responsibility receive its comeuppance? Can we move forward with a government that will be able to respond to future pandemics with more speed and intelligence?
I predict the GOP/FOX News/Trump pivots with scapegoat racism, blaming the Chinese, doubling down on xenophobic fear of immigrants, and increased calls of nationalism...Amerca First. The virus will not be a wake-up call. It will just reconfirm everyone's entrenched beliefs on the right and left. In the age of social media and cable news, anything that happens that is this large is easily used by both sides. But the suburban independent voters -the ones the Dems so thirstily lust after- will side with fear unless they are given a compelling argument of a better way. Saying 'you have a plan' isn't persuasive enough. You need a vision. The right has a very clear vision: fear...and anything bad that happens which comes from outside is just further proof that you can't trust POC, the borders should be closed, and we should think about ourselves first. This was the line of attack when the Syrian civil erupted and refugees were seeking asylum. This was the line of attack when kids were being put in cages. This was the line of attack for Ebola (remember that?), and SARS. And it worked. Fear is very effective in shutting down critical thinking among certain segments of the population. During Ebola, I had older white people come up to me and parrot FOX News propaganda about immigrants and the dangers of Africa, word-for-word.
Unfortunately, fear is more persuasive than a calm plan. Dems always have plans and contingencies, and project goals. But they will need an actual vision that is on par with the fear narrative. Otherwise, fear will win this battle too. And we will have another pandemic mismanaged by the same group because they will know exactly how to spin their incompetence, our panic, and all the dead bodies.
I predict the GOP/FOX News/Trump pivots with scapegoat racism, blaming the Chinese, doubling down on xenophobic fear of immigrants, and increased calls of nationalism...Amerca First. The virus will not be a wake-up call. It will just reconfirm everyone's entrenched beliefs on the right and left. In the age of social media and cable news, anything that happens that is this large is easily used by both sides. But the suburban independent voters -the ones the Dems so thirstily lust after- will side with fear unless they are given a compelling argument of a better way. Saying 'you have a plan' isn't persuasive enough. You need a vision. The right has a very clear vision: fear...and anything bad that happens which comes from outside is just further proof that you can't trust POC, the borders should be closed, and we should think about ourselves first. This was the line of attack when the Syrian civil erupted and refugees were seeking asylum. This was the line of attack when kids were being put in cages. This was the line of attack for Ebola (remember that?), and SARS. And it worked. Fear is very effective in shutting down critical thinking among certain segments of the population. During Ebola, I had older white people come up to me and parrot FOX News propaganda about immigrants and the dangers of Africa, word-for-word.
Unfortunately, fear is more persuasive than a calm plan. Dems always have plans and contingencies, and project goals. But they will need an actual vision that is on par with the fear narrative. Otherwise, fear will win this battle too. And we will have another pandemic mismanaged by the same group because they will know exactly how to spin their incompetence, our panic, and all the dead bodies.
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