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Duncan Grant

(8,258 posts)
Sun Mar 15, 2020, 01:27 PM Mar 2020

The Coronavirus Called America's Bluff (The Atlantic)

The Coronavirus Called America’s Bluff
Like Japan in the mid-1800s, the United States now faces a crisis that disproves everything the country believes about itself.
-Anne Applebaum

The United States, long accustomed to thinking of itself as the best, most efficient, and most technologically advanced society in the world, is about to be proved an unclothed emperor. When human life is in peril, we are not as good as Singapore, as South Korea, as Germany. And the problem is not that we are behind technologically, as the Japanese were in 1853. The problem is that American bureaucracies, and the antiquated, hidebound, unloved federal government of which they are part, are no longer up to the job of coping with the kinds of challenges that face us in the 21st century. Global pandemics, cyberwarfare, information warfare—these are threats that require highly motivated, highly educated bureaucrats; a national health-care system that covers the entire population; public schools that train students to think both deeply and flexibly; and much more.

The failures of the moment can be partly ascribed to the loyalty culture that Trump himself has spent three years building in Washington. Only two weeks ago, he named his 29-year-old former bodyguard, a man who was previously fired from the White House for financial shenanigans, to head up a new personnel-vetting team. Its role is to ensure that only people certifiably loyal are allowed to work for the president. Trump also fired, ostentatiously, the officials who testified honestly during the impeachment hearings, an action that sends a signal to others about the danger of truth-telling...

As a nation, we are not good at long-term planning, and no wonder: Our political system insists that every president be allowed to appoint thousands of new officials, including the kinds of officials who think about pandemics. Why is that necessary? Why can’t expertise be allowed to accumulate at the highest levels of agencies such as the CDC? I’ve written before about the problem of discontinuity in foreign policy: New presidents arrive and think they can have a “reset” with other nations, as if other nations are going to forget everything that happened before their arrival—as if we can cheerfully start all relationships from scratch. But the same is true on health, the environment, and other policy issues. Of course there should be new Cabinet members every four or eight years. But should all their deputies change? And their deputies’ deputies? And their deputies’ deputies’ deputies? Because that’s often how it works right now.

All of this happens on top of all the other familiar pathologies: the profound polarization; the merger of politics and entertainment; the loss of faith in democratic institutions; the blind eyes turned to corruption, white-collar crime, and money laundering; the growth of inequality; the conversion of social media and a part of the news media into for-profit vectors of disinformation. These are all part of the deep background to this crisis too.


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The Coronavirus Called America's Bluff (The Atlantic) (Original Post) Duncan Grant Mar 2020 OP
K&R for visibility. nt tblue37 Mar 2020 #1
Right frickin cilla4progress Mar 2020 #2
100% Newest Reality Mar 2020 #3
Kick & R defacto7 Mar 2020 #4
A must read BeyondGeography Mar 2020 #5
It's government-hating republicans and FOX NEWS!!!! BComplex Mar 2020 #6
Agree. not fooled Mar 2020 #11
Thank you, not fooled! BComplex Mar 2020 #12
great article... dhill926 Mar 2020 #7
It's our survival-of-the-fittest free market private interest for profit world bucolic_frolic Mar 2020 #8
The primary function of our Government should be to protect us from people like Trump. lagomorph777 Mar 2020 #9
shrinking government so you can drown it in the bathtub. Grover must be thrilled. Evolve Dammit Mar 2020 #10

Newest Reality

(12,712 posts)
3. 100%
Sun Mar 15, 2020, 01:38 PM
Mar 2020

That was cogent and really hits the key points.

We might want to brace ourselves for one-half of a major depression. That is, the people who are going to be quickly devastated financially by less hours and closings. This will only apply to the barrels of weakest links in this so-called "booming" economy and the proverbial shitshow that is being slung out by a potentially complicit Administration, now.

The only way, IMO, to avert this half-Great Depression II is massive assistance and measures taken for the people impacted. However, that may all run contrary to the best interests and profits of Corporate America and the Captains of Industry, (who we are being asked to consider as altruistic, benevolent helpers when our government should be acting on this) and we know who gets the dibs on that.

There are many internal contradictions about the economics here, but no help for the weakest links, (the 50%?) is going to drive this downfall faster and deeper and bailouts to industry won't matter much with that many people out of commission, ruined, homeless, etc.

BeyondGeography

(39,280 posts)
5. A must read
Sun Mar 15, 2020, 02:00 PM
Mar 2020

One of many strong points:

As a nation, we are not good at long-term planning, and no wonder: Our political system insists that every president be allowed to appoint thousands of new officials, including the kinds of officials who think about pandemics. Why is that necessary? Why can’t expertise be allowed to accumulate at the highest levels of agencies such as the CDC? I’ve written before about the problem of discontinuity in foreign policy: New presidents arrive and think they can have a “reset” with other nations, as if other nations are going to forget everything that happened before their arrival—as if we can cheerfully start all relationships from scratch. But the same is true on health, the environment, and other policy issues.

not fooled

(5,791 posts)
11. Agree.
Sun Mar 15, 2020, 04:06 PM
Mar 2020

All of the criticisms leveled against the Federal government in this editorial can be traced back to the GOPee's successful campaign to weaken and atomize the nation's ability to act at the Federal level.

And, what America has turned into can attributed directly to neoliberalism/Reagonomics and its intended outcome of allowing capital to corrupt and control the levers of power in this country.

Oh, and those of us who are aware and follow history didn't believe that America had such a great bluff going on.

BComplex

(7,982 posts)
12. Thank you, not fooled!
Mon Mar 16, 2020, 01:43 AM
Mar 2020

I'm glad to see people remembering how we got here. There were a lot of us who were aware of the bluff from way back. Elizabeth Warren put it to paper, which is why I supported her, too.

bucolic_frolic

(42,668 posts)
8. It's our survival-of-the-fittest free market private interest for profit world
Sun Mar 15, 2020, 03:24 PM
Mar 2020

Government planning, research, investment banks all went out the door so private interests, capitalists, Republican money managers, and Wall Street, could make money.

We don't have a response to this crisis, we have chaos. This is Reagan's world, getting the government out of the way, drowning the baby in the bathtub. This is Milton Friedman and Arthur Laffer Supply Side territory.

It's merciful if it all crashes. Products aren't as durable as they were 25 years ago, the parts are no longer made here, they cost 3 times as much, and they're all plastic. The capitalists won't understand it until nobody buys their junk anymore.

Pyramid MLM marketing has wrought hucksters to business and to the White House. Time to reboot America. President Biden will have an impossible Herculean task ahead. But I'd rather have someone experienced who knows what government can do than some guy with orange pasta on his head.

lagomorph777

(30,613 posts)
9. The primary function of our Government should be to protect us from people like Trump.
Sun Mar 15, 2020, 04:02 PM
Mar 2020

We need to start reforms the minute President Biden is sworn in.

And yes, that starts with one more purge of the top layers of bureaucracy.

Evolve Dammit

(16,632 posts)
10. shrinking government so you can drown it in the bathtub. Grover must be thrilled.
Sun Mar 15, 2020, 04:04 PM
Mar 2020

Sad reality: this is the beginning of global recession and the rich scooping up even more power. Unsustainable in the long term, but they are salivating at the possibilities for the near future (as long as they stay healthy of course).

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