However noble the impulse, it turns out to have been a fool's errand to hope that post-America could rise to the level of unity that the United States of America could muster in such instances as responding to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Then again, maybe that was the outlier. Really, when else has the nation so rallied? The Civil War was the antithesis of coming together. There was a brief - very brief - moment of unity after the September 2001 attacks. We started politicizing hurricane responses a few short years later. After identity politics thoroughly polluted our institutions ranging from universities to corporations to the realm of arts and entertainment to religion, it had probably become impossible to assume a common purpose for anything predicated on our basic roles as Americans.
And then, in terms of our choices for president, we swung between a standard-bearer for the view that America had been inherently unfair throughout its history, was in need of fundamental transformation and had much to atone for on the world stage, to a huckster peddling a return to some kind of tawdry and vaguely conceived "greatness" that cobbled together a mishmash of elements from irreconcilable worldviews.
It was enough to make a continent-sized nation state dizzy indeed.
And then came this, a crisis with no precedent that could provide any set of guidelines. It was ripe for a cacophony of hot takes, accusations and reciprocations.
No one is permitted to have an assessment along the lines of, "Given the sociocultural circumstances going into this, we did about as well as could be expected." This crisis either has to be treated with the kind of urgency that leaves questions of permanent damage to individual sovereignty sidelined indefinitely, or minimized so that we can have a V-shaped economic recovery and put this episode behind us like a bad dream.
Let's here address what could be seen as refutations to my point. Both Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo have praised President Trump's cooperation and quickness to provide material resources they've requested. That's encouraging indeed.
But we'd be remiss to overlook the fact that Newsom has said that the current crisis presents an "opportunity for reimagining a [more] progressive era as it relates to capitalism" and that "we see this as an opportunity to reshape the way we do business and how we govern." Cuomo's track record shows that he is no less an inhabitant of that end of the ideological spectrum, having announced legislation in January of this year to permanently ban fracking, and and a year earlier signing a bill legalizing abortion up to the moment of birth.
Democrats in Congress have twice now, since this virus has brought our economy to its knees, held up aid packages that would get cash money directly into the hands of businesses and individuals in order to load those packages up with wish-list nods to environmentalism and identity politics.
And left-of-center elected officials quite plainly have accomplices in the news-reporting industry - "the mainstream media." Two things about that: A.) It's undeniable and on display daily across an array of print, broadcast and online outlets, and B.) There are solid, responsible fact-gatherers and analysts at most of those same outlets. It's childish to paint them with such a broad brush that point B doesn't get acknowledged.
That the preponderance of the journalistic realm has leaned left has been a fact for decades. It went after Reagan and both Bushes with an aggressiveness that stood in glaring contrast to its treatment of the Clinton and Obama administrations. If there is a heightened intensity to its attack-mode way of operating in the Trump era, it's due to the fact that, in addition to the normal seething resentment that a Republican won the most recent election, Trump, as everyone who is not a diehard Trumpist can see, is uniquely obnoxious, narcissistic, petty, and impulsive among U.S. presidents, at least in the last 150 years.
And now, having set the table thusly, I say this: It is that factor - Trump's unfitness - that is the more significant influence on our difficulty with being effective in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. There is, of course, what he does and doesn't do that directly affects day-to-day attempts to meet the challenge, but, at least as importantly, how the blind fealty to him among his cult worshippers clouds their ability to take in the full array of considerations before us.
Let's start with the man himself, though. Only a Trumpist unwilling to take his full measure - a columnist willing to title a piece "The Very Remarkable Donald Trump," for instance - can overlook ominous expressions of authoritarianism such as this:
For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect....
....It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!or petty, unseemly and distracting preoccupations such as this:
Just watched Mike Wallace wannabe, Chris Wallace, on . I am now convinced that he is even worse than Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Meet the Press(please!), or the people over at Deface the Nation. What the hell is happening to . It’s a whole new ballgame over there!
Now, on to what slavish devotion is bringing out in his slavish devotees. It's made Wayne Allen Root call for replacing Doctors Birx and Fauci with Larry Kudlow at the daily briefings. It's made Laura Ingraham call for Trump to announce to said doctors a firm May 1 date for "opening the country back up" and demanding that they deal with formulating a protocol to accommodate that.
It's led the likes of engineer-entrepreneur-Senate candidate Shiva Ayyadurai to float conspiracy theories about Dr. Fauci being a puppet of "Big Pharma." It's made it necessary for Dr. Fauci to need a security detail.
What do these people, from the Very Stable Genius on down, envision after this "opening the country back up" has been accomplished? I'm not even just talking about the very real public-health risks involved. I'm not even just talking about the reconsiderations American business will need to undertake regarding its heavily China-dependent supply chains. Do they not see that very real transformation has taken place regarding who we are culturally and spiritually? You do not sequester the entire populace in its homes for two months or more and expect it to re-emerge as if the whole episode were a mere hiccup in our history.
We're at a point at which people had better consider that their utterances have consequences. Yes, economic resuscitation is an integral factor among those that need to be balanced. Yes, this is taking a toll on the psyche of a people known for action-taking. But when we are at the point of ginning up raw, inflamed animosity toward an objective public-health expert, when the U.S. president shows himself to be utterly ignorant of long-established understandings of the purviews of the federal-level executive and legislative branches, as well as of the relative purviews of the federal government and state governments, and when a public intellectual who had at one time rightly earned respect as a champion of our civilization's bedrock principles has so completely swallowed the Kool-Aid as to deny that we're in a pandemic, we're at an alarming juncture indeed.
It's often said by perpetual optimists these days that "we'll get through this." Of course we will. The kind of shape we'll be in when we do, though, depends on whether ostensible adults can get a grip on themselves and choose to assume little responsibility.
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