A common form of hubris is the presumption that we can control everything. If we compile the best available data, put together an expert team, and devise the right plan, we can completely master our destiny.
Then a turn of fate comes out of left field and throws a wrench in our plans. The escalating coronavirus outbreak is a perfect reminder that there are forces bigger than us, and they scoff at our best-laid plans.
We can, perhaps, be forgiven for failing to anticipate a threat of this magnitude. It’s been a long time since the world faced this kind of crisis. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 might be the closest historical analog.
Take a quick glance at our elites’ bumbling response to the Wu Flu, and it’s clear that a calamity of this scale never entered into their calculus. Warnings had been leaking out of China since at least January about how dire the situation was, but the West’s rulers couldn’t put their globalist experiment on hold for even a couple of weeks. Their pet ideology couldn’t countenance reasonable measures like border closings, and now their subjects are paying the price.
Stateside, meanwhile, Donald Trump may have found the only way to lose his 2020 reelection bid against dementia patient Joe Biden. Trump won in 2016 as the quintessential outsider candidate. But instead of representing Main Street, his governing priorities have veered more and more toward Wall Street.
The influence of Trump’s bankster advisers was evident in the series of now-embarrassing, “It’s just the flu, bro!” tweets he issued in the last weeks.
And look, downplaying the crisis to stave off economic panic made sense. It was shortsighted and foolish, but you could see where market worshipers like Bill Mitchell were coming from. They’d convinced the President to stake his reelection on his robust economic numbers. If Corona-chan threatened those numbers, perhaps it was expedient that a few thousand die for the market’s sake.
Now it’s clear that the amateur Cassandras like Jim’s good friend on Twitter were on to something. Pretending the problem didn’t exist failed to avert economic disaster–and will probably worsen it in the long run.
What’s especially frustrating is we know what 2016 Trump would have done. He’d have correctly used the outbreak as an indictment against globalism, closed the ports, and fast-tracked the wall.
Instead of taking the candidate Trump approach, President Trump heeded the bow tie-clad Iagos and bet everything on the stock market. Like many who trusted that fickle mistress before him, he’s now back at square one. All $11.5 trillion the stock market gained since he took office has now evaporated.
With no wall to speak of, Obamacare still on the books, and Hillary Clinton still walking free, Trump doesn’t have much to run on right now.
To his credit, the President seemed to wake up on Wednesday and start taking the corona virus seriously. He made the long-overdue announcement that the outbreak is a global pandemic and declared the sorts of travel bans we should have seen weeks ago. Still, better late than never.
Watch President Trump’s full corona virus live stream here:
This speech was a step in the right direction. The economic damage has been done and is unlikely to be repaired by November. Hopefully those facts will encourage Trump to ditch his advisers’ GOPe market worship and recommit to the nationalist and populist issues that got him elected.
Every crisis is an opportunity, as our Chinese friends are fond of reminding us. Corona-chan has certainly visited Trump with a crisis, but she also offers him an opportunity for huge political gains if he course corrects tackles globalism like his base wants.
It’s decision time for Trump. Thankfully, he’s showing signs of choosing rightly.
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