To deal with a crisis like the coronavirus, we neither need a bloated federal bureaucracy full of paternalistic technocrats who think they know better what's good for the people than the people themselves, nor courts full with liberal activist judges, nor strangling commitments to international bodies and treaties which disempower the American voter.

Had Trump taken the virus serious earlier and put out a reasonable, unifying message instead of dragging the issue into the partisan trenches, then the U.S. would have gotten through the pandemic reasonably well. The failure of the US in dealing with this crisis is not because of weakened institutions, it is because of Trump's very personal mistakes and shortcomings.

Trump is literally at the head of the most powerful institutions of the United States, and is a source of direction for the ones he isn't the head of.

When Trump doesn't do those things he is himself the weak institutions. There is no "personal failings" when you're the fucking president of the United States you dumbass. Your failings are the failings of the institution.

This post was edited by Thor123422 on Aug 23 2020 12:20pm

I was talking about structural, long-term damage to those institutions. Damage that persists after Trump has left office. At least that's what I had in mind, should have made this clearer.
I was conflating this thread with the Joe Biden thread, where IceMage had written earlier today that "another Trump term would be a real threat to American democracy". For this argument to make sense, you need to do more than put an incompetent head in charge of an institution for a limited amount of time.

Guess I’ll have to read about her now.

All he had to do was appoint a task force full of XXX people. And push for funds to allow for effective testing.
Go golfing.
too stupid to even stay out of the way.

I dont disagree, but there might have been attempts by other Republicans to politicize the issue anyway, so it would still have required some leadership from Trump to prevent the thing from becoming partisan.

Yes.. but he could DELEGATE something.. This is a thing anyone that has to manage large situations needs to do to be effective.
He may have to step in etc. if things were ridiculous. But in this case HE has made it the complete disaster it is. Delegated to above chimp IQ people it would be in a better situation, and he could go back to golfing and the US would be in a better situation. Golfing is the BEST place trump can be when it comes to US overall wellness.

This is true. What we need is an armed populace who would execute the living shit out of people not wearing masks every time the show their fucking faces in public. Everyone needs a gun in this country, and everyone needs to be ready to use it to defend themselves from morons on a constant basis. We don't need a government, just give everyone a gun and we'll be fine.

As a Christian, I believe in forgiveness. We should execute their children first and allow themselves to be redeemed.

Their children should be separated from them and caged at the border with no blankets or food first. This is the only appropriate way to treat criminals.