Trump's Incompetence Goes Viral

By David K. Shipler 

              

               Two days after his inauguration in January 2017, President Trump imposed a hiring freeze on the federal government. Within four months, the Centers for Disease Control had 700 vacancies that handicapped infectious disease prevention and control, and impeded aid to localities for emergency readiness. High-level positions in science and policy went unfilled.

                Since then, every Trump budget has sought to slash the CDC’s budget: by 17 percent for fiscal year 2018, by 20 percent for fiscal year 2019, 20 percent for fiscal 2020, and even now—amid the coronavirus—by 15% for fiscal 2021. This after Trump in 2018 dissolved the National Security Council’s global health security team, which existed to manage precisely the kind of outbreak we are now experiencing.

                This might seem odd for a germaphobe like Trump. But it fits neatly into the destructive agenda of the extreme right-wing radicals who have taken over the Republican Party, who aim for the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” in the words of Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon.

                More aggressively than any other Republican administration, Trump’s has emasculated regulatory departments, moved to shred decades of environmental and worker-safety regulations, shredded enforcement of consumer protection and anti-discrimination laws, and tried to tear bigger holes in the social safety net.

     In addition, Trump, Vice President Pence, and other officials have made sure to plant legions of unqualified political appointees in the upper ranks of multiple agencies, producing a perfect storm of  neglect and incompetence. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy by discrediting government as less significant and less effective, which feeds a spiral of discontent and alienation about “Washington” and government in general. The conservative agenda of shrinking the public sector thereby gains public support.

     The Republicans’ aspirations flow into most aspects of American life that touch ordinary folks. In his State of the Union Address this year, Trump repeatedly derided “failing government schools,” as if to wish their disappearance instead of funding their improvement. The hallmark of  Republicanism is the resistance to a larger government role in paying for health care, in reducing fossil fuels to combat global warming, in protecting impoverished families from homelessness and hunger, and on and on into myriad areas of what can be called the common good.

     Of course, conservative Republicans see nothing wrong with government getting very big when it comes to subsidizing such corporate interests as oil and gas, or with government getting very intrusive when it comes to a woman’s body and her constitutional right to end a pregnancy. Republicans have been content to abandon their fiscal conservatism by cutting business taxes and running up the deficit to harmful levels. And Trump’s conservatism takes a holiday at his resort of Mar-a-Lago when it charges the Secret Service and other officials high fees that go from the taxpayers’ pockets right into his.

     But when some catastrophe like the coronavirus pandemic appears, government suddenly looks essential, not only for the substantive action that it can take, but also for the reassurance that it can give through solid, steady, competent, credible leadership. Trump, the perpetual liar and shameless braggart, cannot provide that confidence. His position as president amplifies his ignorance and his danger—as when he said approvingly that sick people could keep going to work.

     So his volatile, uninformed fakery has rattled the markets much more than they would have been legitimately spooked by the real economic consequences of the pandemic. His record of governmental destruction has confronted the superb professionals at the CDC with more challenges than they would have faced in any event. The administration's saving grace at the moment is Pence, who comes across as well grounded and sensible. That gain is lost whenever Trump opens his mouth. 

     In the end, will the Republicans’ wrecking ball be stopped by a bunch of microbes? By November, how many voters will have come to recognize Trump’s colossal failure as both manager and policymaker? How many will finally see through his habit of scapegoating as he points the finger of blame at others?

     It’s been wisely observed that citizens care a lot about their health and their money. We shall see.