Consult the protesters
People in charge during a crisis like the current one need resiliency; they need to be able to change course and adapt, to be willing to try new things, to get creative.
Trump does not need to reach back in history for an example of a leadership style that doesn’t require a dubious pose of perfection to convey strength. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, who regularly shares the podium with Trump at coronavirus briefings, has described often in interviews the vitriol targeted at him during the early days of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Protesters were storming the National Institutes of Health campus and burning Fauci in effigy, because of frustrations with the pace of research on a cure.The activist Larry Kramer, whom Fauci now counts as a friend, was calling him a murderer. Fauci decided the protesters were right on some key points and urged they be integrated closely into the government’s response.
“The best thing I’ve done from a sociological and community standpoint was to embrace the activists,” Fauci said in an interview with Science Speaks in 2011. “Instead of rejecting them, I listened to them.”
Close your eyes and imagine Trump saying that.
Can’t be done, can it.
I just finished reading a book about Alice Paul and the feminist protesters. A lot of people at the time were outraged at the protests, but it got the job done. The problem is, not all protesters should be listened to. Fauci was able to reach out to protesters who were useful; Trump is more likely to listen to those protesting the closures, the distancing guidelines, even the purchase of more ventilators.
So, yes, listen to the protesters, consult the protesters, but make sure you listen to the ones who have something valuable to contribute.
There would have to be some independent standards established for that. I can imagine that Trump’s criteria for what would constitute a “valuable” contribution would be quite different from what would be an actually useful contribution, as the things Trump values are all petty and self serving. He’d be looking for people who would make “valuable contributions” such as:
-Paying him money, directly or through Trump-branded enterprises
-Praising him, flattering him and making him look good
-Agreeing with things he already “knows”
-Punishing Democratic members of congress, Democratic Governors, states that he didn’t win in the 2016 election
-Making rich people richer
-Punishing poor people, brown people, immigrants (special bonus points for measures that target all three groups at once)
-Triggering Libs
Notice that there’s nothing on this list that would in any way prioritize measures that actually help address and solve the problem under study. Any such outcome under Trump would be completely accidental, tangential and unintended.
Did I miss anything?
Didn’t see anything related to pussy-grabbing on that list.
How embarassing! Well spotted. That’s like missing the FREE square on the bingo card!
Oh, and ice cream. More ice cream than the next guy. (Even if the next guy…next two guys, I suppose…are Ben and Jerry.)
Oh, iknklast, now I find myself really wanting a Twitter campaign informing Trump that he’ll never have as much ice cream as Ben or Jerry – am I evil?