Trump actively fed red meat to the anti-maskers through the summer and did not lead by example, by wearing a mask. He held an event in the Rose Garden a month ago where only a small proportion of people were wearing a mask, and attendees were packed like sardines. If one wanted to design an outdoor superspreader event, this was almost a perfect design:
Trump blocked implementation of a national testing program. Running PCR in a day was never technically impossible. COVID test results are still taking multiple days to return in many states, unless exigent circumstances (hospital admission) are involved. Rapid, free testing could be implemented on a national level. Slovakia is testing their ENTIRE POPULATION in a weekend:
(Yes, I realize that Slovakia has a smaller population, but we could easily do this state by state.)
NY *state* reopening successfully, even in areas that didn’t get hit particularly hard. Yeah, NYC got hit hard initially. Had there been Federal/CDC guidance on mask use and travel quarantine back in February, this would have been less of an issue. It didn’t help that the administration gave people 2-3 days in March to return from hotspots in Europe. The lines for immigration and customs at Kennedy in mid-March were likely a major infection source — many of the worst-hit areas were areas near airports where workers tended to live, not more densely-populated parts of the city like Manhattan:
Israel is not our problem. Nor is Saudi, nor Iraq, nor Kuwait, nor anywhere else in the Middle East. Let them fight to exhaustion, why is it worth our money to save people who don’t want to be saved? There’s really one product that we need from the Middle East, and with local oil production, local natural gas production, nuclear power, and renewables, we really don’t need it as an energy source long term.
I get it … some people may think that Trump did a good job and vote for him, but this perception is not grounded in objective reality or actual science. There’s also more to being a “liberal” than jobs and the economy.
What about environmental policy? Trump doesn’t have a stellar record there. He has a history of denying established scientific knowledge.
What about infrastructure and public transit? Trump’s budget proposals have heavily favored roads and air travel, not over forms of transit.
What about education? Trump is known for his snipes and railing against university-educated elites, and his hiring of people who don’t have the best scientific and intellectual qualifications.
What about healthcare? Trump rails against “Obamacare” without a workable plan to replace it with something better.
