500,000. Americans. Dead.
(WWII - 406,000 American soldier deaths.)
"This is historic. We'll be talking about it decades and decades from now," Dr. Anthony Fauci said today of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is the state we're in.
One can not emphasize enough that the scale of death from Covid-19 didn't have to be. The history that Dr. Fauci is referring to, through this column's lens, is the utter failure of leadership and the blatant disregard for American life on the part of the 45th president not taking the pandemic seriously. He will be subject to history's harshest light. Unforgivable, not to mention a violation of his oath as president.
With regard to schools reopening, what caught our attention was United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten saying that they now had a roadmap to follow from the CDC, which means that previously there wasn't one. If the CDC guidelines are followed, schools should reopen and the vaccination strategy will catch up. However, as Dr. Fauci noted, you can not give a number or percentage as to how many schools should be open or the ratio of hybrid learning as each community is different and the decision factors for parents and teachers vary, which is natural. In addition to mask-wearing and mitigation, Ms. Weingarten said that teachers are scared because of the health risks to themselves their families, understandably, so facts and education are needed to combat the fear.
It's a saddeningly, recurrent theme that has permeated American life over the last 5 years and it will take as much collective mental effort as there is money to move past this mindset. That's not to say that one should not be concerned about getting Covid, it just means educating and understanding more as Dr. Fauci and Ms. Weintgarten suggest to be smarter and more compassionate as we move forward.
Add to the state the mess with Texas.
Fmr. Congressman Will Hurd said that the former president should little or no part all at in the party moving forward, but he is clearly in a small minority within the Republican caucus. However, it's precisely this strictly politically-focused leadership, as opposed to policy-oriented governing, that sees Texas in the mess it's in at this moment. When Chuck Todd asked Mr. Hurd if it was preventable, he said that it was 100% preventable and responsible is a lack of leadership and long term planning. Harsh and direct, but what do you expect when the person answering the question is currently boiling water for his family like millions of other Texans right now.
Governance under Republican leadership whether in Texas or anywhere else has move off the notion that there only there to attain power and fight culture wars. Former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory said that Republicans will heal themselves by uniting on the issues [read: opposition to any Democratic proposal]. He explained that the Republican party is going through a process of anger, blaming and disappointment right now just as the Democrats did in 2016. Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher disagreed because a plurality of Democrats weren't considering breaking from the party, which is the case right now with the Republicans.
USA Today's Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page rattled off some disturbing statistics, namely that 58% of Trump supporters think that the January 6th siege on the Capitol was committed by Antifa. This is so absurd that one can hardly speak to this, to say something that would convince one person of the 58% otherwise.
So Mr. McCrory's calculus is off. How do you unify around issues when you can't agree on what the facts on those issues are, starting with the fact that Joe Biden was fairly elected President of the United States.
Unfortunately for all of us, until this cracked fault line is reckoned with, state and federal Republican leaders will only serve to prolong the mess we're in.
Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Susan Paige, USA Today; Cornell Belcher, Democratic Strategist; Pat McCrory, fmr. North Carolina Governor
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