From Vox:
If you had told me, a year ago, that a pandemic virus would overrun the country, that 200,000 Americans would die and case numbers would dwarf Europe, that the economy would go into deep freeze and the federal government prove utterly feckless, I would’ve thought that’s the kind of systemic shock that could crack into public opinion. I’m not saying I would’ve predicted Trump[’s approval rating] falling to 20 percent, but I would’ve predicted movement.
The stability unnerves me because it undermines the basic
theory of responsive democracy. If our political divisions cut so deep
that even 200,000 deaths and 10.2 percent unemployment and a president
musing about bleach injections can’t shake us, then what can? And if the
answer is nothing, then that means the crucial form of accountability
in American politics has collapsed. Yes, many of us are partisans, with a
hard lean one way or the other. But the assumption has long been that
beneath that, we are Americans, and we want the country governed with
some bare level of competence, that we care more for our safety and our
paychecks than our parties.
But how do we know if we’re being governed with a bare level of competence?
Read the full article.
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