We know that Donald Trump's reaction to the Coronavirus pandemic has been the height of incompetence.He refused to heed the many warnings he had in December and January that the virus was coming to the U.S., and that it would be nasty. He did nothing until January 31st, when he closed travel to this country from China, and that was too late.
Then he did nothing else until the middle of March, except hope the virus would magically disappear. And the actions taken after mid-March have been chaotic and sometimes even nonsensical (like promoting false and dangerous "cures").
Now, even though the number of cases and deaths continue to rise across the country, Trump is urging governors to "reopen" their states for business. Why? Because Trump doesn't know what to do. He has no plan -- other than continuing to lie and blame others for his own failings, and watch the number of deaths climbing.
At this critical time in our history, America needs strong leadership. It needs a president that listens to medical and public health experts, and acts to save as many lives as possible. Unfortunately, we only have Trump -- a man without a plan, and no clue how to develop one (because he refuses to listen to the professionals).
Here is how Jay Rosen puts it at PressThink:
The plan is to have no plan, to let daily deaths between one and three thousand become a normal thing, and then to create massive confusion about who is responsible— by telling the governors they’re in charge without doing what only the federal government can do, by fighting with the press when it shows up to be briefed, by fixing blame for the virus on China or some other foreign element, and by “flooding the zone with shit,” Steve Bannon’s phrase for overwhelming the system with disinformation, distraction, and denial, which boosts what economists call “search costs” for reliable intelligence.
Stated another way, the plan is to default on public problem solving,and then prevent the public from understanding the consequences of that default. To succeed this will require one of the biggest propaganda and freedom of information fights in U.S. history, the execution of which will, I think, consume the president’s re-election campaign. So much has already been made public that the standard script for a White House cover up (worse than the crime…) won’t apply. Instead, everything will ride on the manufacture of confusion. The press won’t be able to “expose” the plot because it will all happen in stark daylight. The facts will be known, and simultaneously they will be inconceivable
“The plan is to have no plan” is not a strategy, really. Nor would I call it a policy. It has a kind of logic to it, but this is different from saying it has a design— or a designer. Meaning: I do not want to be too conspiratorial about this. To wing it without a plan is merely the best this government can do, given who heads the table. The manufacture of confusion is just the ruins of Trump’s personality meeting the powers of the presidency. There is no genius there, only a damaged human being playing havoc with our lives.
