Monday, August 31, 2020
Biden Gets Favorability Bump - Trump Does Not
The charts above are from the ABC News / Ipsos Poll -- done latest on August 28th and 29th of a national sample of 732 adults, with a 3.9 point margin of error.
It shows the favorability of the candidates before and after their conventions. Joe Biden was viewed favorably by 40% of adults before the Democratic convention. After that convention, the number had risen to 45%. Donald Trump was viewed favorably by 32% before the Republican convention. After that convention, his favorability was 31%.
Joe Biden got a significant bump in how adults viewed him, but Donald Trump did not. The current difference in favorability is about 15 points for Biden over Trump. Biden has a 6 point positive difference in favorability (46% favorable to 40% unfavorable), while Trump has a 28 point negative difference (31% favorable to 59% unfavorable).
The same is true in the vice-presidential race. Kamala Harris got a big bump in favorability from the Democratic convention, while Mike Pence did not get a bump from the Republican convention. The current favorability in 43% for Harris and 31% for Pence -- a 12 point difference.
GOP Convention Lowest In Viewers Of Last 8 Conventions
The chart above is from Axios.com. It shows the Nielsen figures for the viewership of the last four Democratic and Republican convention.
The number of viewers who watched both conventions this year is significantly lower than in previous years. The Democratic convention had 5.2 million fewer viewers than in 2016. The Republican convention had 8.4 million fewer viewers than in 2016.
On the most important night, the last day when the presidential nominees give their acceptance speech, about 800,000 more people watched Biden's speech than watched Trump's speech.
Trump's Biggest Broken Promises
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich (pictured) gives us the 40 biggest broken promises of Trump.
1. He said coronavirus would “go away without a vaccine.”
You bought it. But it didn’t. While other countries got the pandemic under control and avoided large numbers of fatalities, the virus has killed more than 130,000 Americans*, and that number is still climbing.
2. He said he won’t have time to play golf if elected president.
But he has made more than 250 visits to his golf clubs since he took office – a record for any president – including more trips during the pandemic than meetings with Dr. Fauci. The total financial cost to America? More than $136 million.
3. He said he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, and replace it with something “beautiful.”
It didn’t happen. Instead, 7 million Americans have lost their health insurance since he took office. He has asked the Supreme Court to strike down the law in the middle of a global pandemic with no plan to replace it.
4. He said he’d cut your taxes, and that the super-rich like him would pay more.
He did the opposite. By 2027, the richest 1 percent will have received 83 percent of the Trump tax cut and the richest 0.1 percent, 60 percent of it. But more than half of all Americans will pay more in taxes.
5. He said corporations would use their tax cuts to invest in American workers.
They didn’t. Corporations spent more of their tax savings buying back shares of their own stock than increasing workers wages.
6. He said he would boost economic growth by 4 percent a year.
Nope. The economy stalled, and unemployment has soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression. Just over half of working-age Americans are employed – the worst ratio in 70 years.
7. He said he wouldn’t “cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.”
His latest budget includes billions in cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
8. He promised to be “the voice” of American workers.
He hasn’t. His administration has stripped workers of their rights, repealed overtime protections, rolled back workplace safety rules, and turned a blind eye to employers who steal their workers’ wages.
9. He promised that the average American family would see a $4,000 pay raise because of his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
But nothing trickled down. Wages for most Americans have barely kept up with inflation.
10. He promised that anyone who wants a test for Covid will get one.
But countless Americans still can’t get a test.
11. He said hydroxychloroquine protects against coronavirus.
No way. The FDA revoked its emergency authorization due to the drug’s potentially lethal side effects.
12. He promised to eliminate the federal deficit.
He has increased the federal deficit by more than 60 percent.
13. He said he would hire “only the best people.”
He has fired a record number of his own cabinet and White House picks, and then called them “whackos,” “dumb as a rock,“ and "not mentally qualified.” 6 of them have been charged with crimes.
14. He promised to bring down the price of prescription drugs and said drug companies are “getting away with murder.”
They still are. Drug prices have soared, and a company that got federal funds to develop a drug to treat coronavirus is charging $3,000 a pop.=
15. He promised to revive the struggling coal industry and bring back lost coal mining jobs.
The coal industry has continued to lose jobs as clean energy becomes cheaper.
16. He promised to help American workers during the pandemic.
But 80% of the tax benefits in the coronavirus stimulus package have gone to millionaires and billionaires. And at least 21 million Americans have lost extra unemployment benefits, with no new stimulus check to fall back on.
17. He said he’d drain the swamp.
Instead, he’s brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, and he’s filled departments and agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who are crafting new policies for the same industries they used to work for.
18. He promised to protect Americans with pre-existing conditions.
His Justice Department is trying to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, including protections for people with preexisting conditions.
19. He said Mexico would pay for his border wall.
The wall is estimated to cost American taxpayers an estimated $11 billion.
20. He promised to bring peace to the Middle East.
Instead, tensions have increased and his so-called “peace plan” was dead on arrival.
21. He promised to lock up Hillary Clinton for using a private email server.
He didn’t. Funny enough, Trump uses his personal cell-phone for official business, and several members of his own administration, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka, have used private email in the White House.
22. He promised to use his business experience to whip the federal government into shape.
He hasn’t. His White House is in permanent chaos. He caused the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history when he didn’t get funding for his wall.
23. He promised to end DACA.
The Supreme Court ruled that his plan to deport 700,000 young immigrants was unconstitutional, and DACA still stands.
24. He promised “six weeks of paid maternity leave to any mother with a newborn child whose employer does not provide the benefit.”
He hasn’t delivered.
25. He promised to bring an end to Kim Jong-Un’s nuclear program.
Kim is expanding North Korea’s nuclear program.
26. He said he would distance himself from his businesses while in office.
He continues to make money from his properties and maintain his grip on his real estate empire.
27. He said he’d force companies to keep jobs in America, and that there would be consequences for companies that shipped jobs abroad.
Since he took office, companies like GE, Carrier, Ford, and Harley Davidson have continued to outsource thousands of jobs while still receiving massive tax breaks. And offshoring by federal contractors has increased.
28. He promised to end the opioid crisis.
Americans are now more likely to die from an opioid overdose than a car accident.
29. He said he’d release his tax returns.
It’s been nearly 4 years. He hasn’t released his tax returns.
30. He promised to tear up the Iran nuclear deal and renegotiate a better deal.
Negotiations have gone nowhere, and he brought us to the brink of war.
31. He promised to enact term limits for all members of Congress.
He has not even tried to enact term limits.
32. He promised that China would pay for tariffs on imported goods.
His trade war has cost U.S. consumers $34 billion a year, eliminated 300,000 American jobs, and cost American taxpayers $22 billion in subsidies for farmers hurt by the tariffs.
33. He promised to “push colleges to cut the skyrocketing cost of tuition.”
Instead, he’s made it easier for for-profit colleges to defraud students, and tuition is still rising.
34. He promised to protect American steel jobs.
The steel industry continues to lose jobs.
35. He promised tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations would spur economic growth and pay for themselves.
His tax cuts will add $2 trillion to the federal deficit.
36. After pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, he said he’d negotiate a better deal on the environment.
He hasn’t attempted to negotiate any deal.
37. He promised that the many women who accused him of sexual misconduct “will be sued after the election is over.”
He hasn’t sued them, presumably because he doesn’t want the truth to come out.
38. He promised to bring back all troops from Afghanistan.
He now says: "We’ll always have somebody there.”
39. He pledged to put America first.
Instead, he’s deferred to dictators and authoritarians at America’s expense, and ostracized our allies — who now laugh at us behind our back.
40. He promised to be the voice of the common people.
He’s made his rich friends richer, increased the political power of big corporations and the wealthy, and harmed working Americans.Don’t let the liar-in-chief break any more promises. Vote him out in November.
Sunday, August 30, 2020
COVID-19 Growth In Each State In The Last Week
These numbers are from The COVID Tracking Project.
The first number for each state is the number of cases they had on 8/22/20. The second number is the number of cases on 8/29/20 (one week later).
Alabama..........114532 -- 122185
Alaska..........5494 -- 5923
Arizona..........197895 -- 200658
Arkansas..........56199 -- 59583
California.........656892 -- 688858
Colorado..........54586 -- 56343
Connecticut.........51519 -- 52495
Delaware..........16828 -- 17083
District of Columbia..........13534 -- 13851
Florida..........597597 -- 615806
Georgia..........252222 -- 265372
Hawaii..........6072 -- 7566
Idaho..........29369 -- 31122
Illinois..........219702 -- 231185
Indiana..........85317 -- 91313
Iowa..........55735 -- 60971
Kansas..........36856 -- 41048
Kentucky..........42265 -- 46757
Louisiana..........141720 -- 146243
Maine..........4317 -- 4436
Maryland..........103523 -- 106664
Massachusetts..........125360 -- 127584
Michigan..........106044 -- 111136
Minnesota..........68867 -- 73240
Mississippi..........77268 -- 81294
Missouri..........74257 -- 80992
Montana..........6376 -- 7063
Nebraska..........31626 -- 33101
Nevada..........65069 -- 67852
New Hampshire..........7092 -- 7216
New Jersey..........189236 -- 190971
New Mexico..........24095 -- 24920
New York..........429165 -- 432767
North Carolina..........153641 -- 162491
North Dakota..........9736 -- 11110
Ohio..........114165 -- 120124
Oklahoma..........52599 -- 56260
Oregon..........24710 -- 26054
Pennsylvania..........128429 -- 131991
Rhode Island..........21022 -- 21683
South Carolina..........111295 -- 115951
South Dakota..........11136 -- 12517
Tennessee..........142083 -- 150815
Texas..........573139 -- 601768
Utah..........48814 -- 50948
Vermont..........1553 -- 1589
Virginia..........112072 -- 117592
Washington..........69779 -- 72703
West Virginia..........9185 -- 9824
Wisconsin..........74726 -- 78868
Wyoming..........3543 -- 3763
Virgin Islands..........960 -- 1075
Puerto Rico..........29577 -- 31988
Guam..........767 -- 1287
The first number for each state is the number of cases they had on 8/22/20. The second number is the number of cases on 8/29/20 (one week later).
Alabama..........114532 -- 122185
Alaska..........5494 -- 5923
Arizona..........197895 -- 200658
Arkansas..........56199 -- 59583
California.........656892 -- 688858
Colorado..........54586 -- 56343
Connecticut.........51519 -- 52495
Delaware..........16828 -- 17083
District of Columbia..........13534 -- 13851
Florida..........597597 -- 615806
Georgia..........252222 -- 265372
Hawaii..........6072 -- 7566
Idaho..........29369 -- 31122
Illinois..........219702 -- 231185
Indiana..........85317 -- 91313
Iowa..........55735 -- 60971
Kansas..........36856 -- 41048
Kentucky..........42265 -- 46757
Louisiana..........141720 -- 146243
Maine..........4317 -- 4436
Maryland..........103523 -- 106664
Massachusetts..........125360 -- 127584
Michigan..........106044 -- 111136
Minnesota..........68867 -- 73240
Mississippi..........77268 -- 81294
Missouri..........74257 -- 80992
Montana..........6376 -- 7063
Nebraska..........31626 -- 33101
Nevada..........65069 -- 67852
New Hampshire..........7092 -- 7216
New Jersey..........189236 -- 190971
New Mexico..........24095 -- 24920
New York..........429165 -- 432767
North Carolina..........153641 -- 162491
North Dakota..........9736 -- 11110
Ohio..........114165 -- 120124
Oklahoma..........52599 -- 56260
Oregon..........24710 -- 26054
Pennsylvania..........128429 -- 131991
Rhode Island..........21022 -- 21683
South Carolina..........111295 -- 115951
South Dakota..........11136 -- 12517
Tennessee..........142083 -- 150815
Texas..........573139 -- 601768
Utah..........48814 -- 50948
Vermont..........1553 -- 1589
Virginia..........112072 -- 117592
Washington..........69779 -- 72703
West Virginia..........9185 -- 9824
Wisconsin..........74726 -- 78868
Wyoming..........3543 -- 3763
Virgin Islands..........960 -- 1075
Puerto Rico..........29577 -- 31988
Guam..........767 -- 1287
U.S. - Worst Job With COVID-19 Than Any Advanced Country
The charts above are from the Pew Research Center. They questioned at least 1,000 adults in 14 advanced economies.
The United States didn't fare too well. Only the U.S. (52%) and the U.K. (54%) had a majority of people believing their governments had done a bad job of handling the pandemic. And the people in the U.S., by a large margin (77%), thought their country was more divided than ever because of government actions. The closest to the U.S. was Spain at 59%.
Voters Support "Black Lives Matter" Movement BY 11-Points
The Civiqs Poll has been polling on the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) since April of 2017. The chart above reflects the results of that polling (of 154,087 registered voters).
Back in April of 2017, voters opposed BLM by a 3-point margin. Now the voters support BLM by an 11-point margin.
The chart below, from the same poll, shows the demographic breakdown of the support/opposition.
Recession Has Cost Over 6 Million Their Health Insurance
That didn't happen in other developed nations -- even those hit hard by the virus and its accompanying recession -- only in the United States. Why?
Because the other developed nations guarantee citizens health insurance through the government. That means a citizen losing their job does not lose their health insurance. It's different in the United States. In the U.S., a majority of people are covered by employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI), and when a worker loses his/her job, they also lose their health insurance (and probably the health insurance for their family).
The chart to the right shows the percentage in each industry covered by health insurance through their employer (ESI). These are all in danger of losing that insurance by losing their job.
This pandemic has revealed the serious flaw in the health insurance system in the United States -- the dependence on employers to provide that insurance. This needs to be fixed, and the best fix is to make the government responsible for providing health insurance for all citizens -- like other developed nations do.
Right-wingers (Republicans) will whine that this is "socialism". That's because they don't believe health insurance is a right of citizens. They see it only as a product to be sold to those lucky enough to afford it. They are wrong. Health insurance (assuring medical care) should be a right of every citizen -- and it should be the government's responsibility to see that every citizen is provided with insurance that allows them to receive decent medical care.
Josh Bivens and Ben Zipperer of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) have written an excellent report of this issue -- and I recommend you read it.
Here is the conclusion from that report:
The inefficiencies and problems caused by the U.S. system of tying access to health insurance to specific jobs is well known. The downsides of employer-based health insurance access have been made spectacularly visible by the COVID-19 shock—a shock that has cost millions of Americans their jobs and their access to health care in the midst of a public health catastrophe.
Delinking access to health insurance from specific jobs should be a top policy priority for the long term. The most ambitious and transformational way to sever this link is to make the federal government the payer of first resort for all health care expenses—a “single-payer” plan. The federal government already is the primary insurer for all Americans over the age of 65 and for households with incomes low enough to qualify for Medicaid. The advantages of a single-payer system are large, both in ensuring consistent access to medical providers that households prefer and in restraining the often-rapid growth of health care costs.
Absent a once-and-for-all switch to a single-payer system, policymakers can take smaller steps to delink health insurance from specific jobs. They could lower the age of eligibility for Medicare, raise the income thresholds for Medicaid eligibility, and/or incorporate into the ACA marketplace exchanges a public option that enrolls all workers without job-based insurance—even those with access to ESI if they prefer the public option instead. Policymakers could also require that employers either provide comprehensive and affordable insurance or pay a fee to help cover the costs of enrolling their workers in the public option.
Finally, the lowest-hanging fruit in the current crisis is to have the federal government pay all expenses for COVID-19-related testing and treatment. Given the historically rapid increase in uninsurance in the first months of the COVID-19 shock, policymakers should also allow all those without insurance to enroll in Medicaid, regardless of income, for the duration of the crisis.
The COVID-19 shock has exposed just how incomplete and threadbare the U.S. safety net and social insurance system is. We should begin building a better set of systems that provide economic security to U.S. workers.
Saturday, August 29, 2020
Most Americans Like Diversity (And That's Bad For Trump)
The charts above reflects the results of the latest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between August 23rd and 25th of a national sample of 1,244 registered voters, with a 3.6 point margin of error.
The United States has always been a nation of diverse colors, ethnicities, and religions. It hasn't always treated the non-whites and non-christians as equals, but they have always been here. And the nations is becoming more diverse all the time.
That no longer bothers a majority of Americans. About 51% say diversity makes the country a better place to live, while only 11% say it makes it worse. And 76% say it is at least somewhat important for a political party to promote diversity, while only 24% say it is not.
This is not good for Trump, because most Americans see him as a racist and a divider. And it has become apparent that Trump wants to appeal to only whites, and suppress the votes of minorities (of color, ethnicity, and religion). I don't think that's going to work this time. Too many Americans are tired of the racial divisions in this country, which Trump is promoting. They want a better country -- not a divided one.
Most see the Democratic Party as the party most likely to promote diversity. About 54% say the Democrats are excellent or fairly good at that, while only 35% say they are not. The Republican Party is not trusted on diversity. Only 41% say they are good at promoting diversity, while 50% say they are not.
At the Republican convention, Trump and the Republicans tried to scare whites by talking about "lawless protests". It was a move to justify their own divisive politics. I don't think it will work. I think most voters will reject the racist and bigoted politics of Trump and the GOP next November.
Another Poll Has Biden With Double-Digit Lead
The charts above reflect the results of the new GSG / Navigator Poll -- done between August 21st and 24th of a national sample of 1,319 registered voters, with a 3.1 point margin of error.
The GOP "Convention" Was Full Of Propaganda And Lies
Here is just part of McKay Coppins described it in The Atlantic:
Americans who tuned in to this week’s Republican National Convention were treated to a slickly produced, four-day dispatch from an alternate reality—one in which the president has defeated the pandemic, healed America’s racial wounds, and ushered in a booming economy. In this carnival of propaganda, Donald Trump was presented not just as a great president, but as a quasi-messianic figure who was single-handedly preventing the nation’s slide into anarchy.
Every presidential-nominating convention is, to a certain extent, an exercise in hype and whitewashing. But Trump’s 2020 convention went further—rewriting the history of his first term with such brazenness that it seemed designed to disorient. The setting of the convention’s final night reinforced the surreality: the made-for-TV stage on the White House’s South Lawn; the cheering, unmasked audience of more than 1,000 standing shoulder to shoulder; the speakers blaring Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” loud enough to drown out protesters at the gate. . . .
Many of the Republican strategists I spoke with this week flatly acknowledged that their party was presenting a version of recent events that veered toward fan fiction. But given the bitter mood of the country and the dire state of the race, they said, the campaign’s desperation was understandable. . . .
The rat-a-tat of distortions and conspiracy theories began with Trump’s address to delegates on Monday, when he accused Democrats of trying to rig the election with universal mail-in voting, which he called “the greatest scam in the history of politics.” (It is not.) Later, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana claimed that Joe Biden had “embraced the insane mission to defund” the police. (He has not.) Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida warned that Democrats would “disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door.” (They will not.) And Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said Democrats wanted to “keep you locked in your house until you become dependent on the government for everything.” (They do not.) . . .
The myth that Trump has already beaten the virus pervaded the convention. As my colleague Russell Berman has noted, the pandemic was repeatedly referred to in the past tense. “It was awful,” Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in his speech on Tuesday. . . .
Much of the Republican convention seemed to be organized around erasing the national memory of Trump’s bigotry. He presided over a naturalization ceremony. He surprised an ex-felon with a presidential pardon. A slate of Black speakers was invited to say nice things about the president, defend him against accusations of racism, and tout his role in passing a criminal-justice-reform bill.
Of course, in between these feel-good stunts and testimonials were bleak warnings about the “Marxist revolutionary” forces that are wreaking havoc in American cities—and could be coming for you next. The most potent of these segments featured the McCloskeys, an affluent Missouri couple who went viral after pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their house in June. “Make no mistake,” Patricia McCloskey told viewers, “no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America.” Protesters, she said, are “not satisfied with spreading chaos and violence into our communities. They want to abolish the suburbs altogether.” Police brutality—the issue at the heart of this summer’s unrest—received only glancing mentions during the convention. . . .
The programming may have been glossier, softer, more savvily pitched to certain demographics. But the goal seemed the same—not to persuade or convert, but to disorient and demoralize. Americans have spent the past four years watching the Trump presidency unfold, and they are not overwhelmingly impressed by what they’ve seen. His campaign appears determined to make voters second-guess themselves. As the political theorist Hannah Arendt once wrote, the purpose of propaganda “has never been to instill convictions, but to destroy the capacity to form any.”
Friday, August 28, 2020
8 Charts Showing The Public Knows Trump Is A Failure
The charts above are from the GSG Navigator Poll -- done between August 21st and 24th of a national sample of 1,002 registered voters (no moe given).
Another Million Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week
The Labor Department released its statistics for new unemployment claims on Thursday. Last week (the week ending on August 22nd) about 1,006,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits. It marks the 22nd week out of the last 23 weeks that more than a million workers filed for unemployment.
Here is the Labor Department's official statement:
In the week ending August 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,006,000, a decrease of 98,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 2,000 from 1,106,000 to 1,104,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,068,000, a decrease of 107,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 500 from 1,175,750 to 1,175,250.
The Last 2 GOP Administrations Were Monumental Failures
George W. Bush and Donald Trump are very different men. Bush is a decent person, while Trump is not.But the administrations of both men were monumental failures. And they failed for basically the same reason -- both Bush and Trump thought they knew better than the professionals working in the government.
Here is just part of how Ezra Klein, at Vox.com, describes those failures:
Trump’s rise has driven a rehabilitation of the George W. Bush brand. Bush’s personal decency, his impulse toward tolerance and inclusivity, glows against the backdrop of Trump’s casual cruelty and personal decadence. But the catastrophic misgovernance in which Bush ended his presidency, and Trump ends his first term, reveals the continuity between the two administrations.
When Bush left the White House in 2009, the Iraq War was a recognized debacle, with thousands of Americans, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, casualties of its chaos. The global economy was in collapse, driven by a calamitous void of regulatory oversight of Wall Street, and the disastrous decision to let Lehman Brothers fall. Less than 10 years later, the next Republican president is ending his first term with nearly 200,000 Americans dead of the coronavirus — the worst pandemic performance, by far, of any rich nation — and an economy in shambles. . . .
Liberals often wonder how conservatives can think the government too inefficient to offer health insurance but capable of invading and rebuilding foreign countries. The answer to the riddle is simple: Bush, at least, didn’t think the American government would have to do the hard work of governance in a foreign land. All it had to do was destroy the existing government.
The Bush team’s contempt for government took a different form than the Trump team’s contempt for government. The Bushies saw themselves as reformers who knew better than the government they led. They were capable, experienced, steeped in the values of the private sector. They wanted to remake the government in their own image. But their administration was a disaster in part because they didn’t know better than the intelligence officials they dismissed, the financial regulators they later ignored, the FEMA staffers they left under incompetent leadership. They didn’t respect the institution they ran enough to listen to what it knew.
The Trump team is more outrightly hostile to the government they lead. They fear “the deep state” too much to try and reform it. They don’t want to remake federal agencies so much as corrupt them for their own gain. Where the Bush team was, at times, too interested in the minutia of the agencies they led, second-guessing even the smallest decisions from civil servants, the Trump team is detached from the agencies they run, unaware, annoyed, or threatened by the workings and responsibilities of the executive branch.
But the coronavirus disaster highlights the way different manifestations of contempt for the government can end in the same place. Like the Bush administration before it, the Trump administration is led by a president who thought he knew better than the experts, and didn’t. Like the Bush administration before it, the Trump administration sidelined internal critics, silencing those who said the administration was doing insufficient planning and committing insufficient resources. Like the Bush administration before it, the Trump administration has been dismissive of the concerns and models offered by foreign governments and contemptuous of international organizations. And like the Bush administration before it, the Trump administration’s misjudgments have led to a shocking casualty count and an economic crisis.
There are many differences between Bush and Trump as individuals, and many differences between their administrations. But both of them represent a Republican Party soaked in contempt for, and mistrust of, the federal government. When you don’t respect, or even like, the institution you lead, you lead it poorly. When that institution is incredibly, globally important — as the US government is — leading it poorly can invite global catastrophe. And sure enough, under the last two Republican administrations, it has. There is continuity here, of the most consequential sort: a continuity of terrible outcomes.
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