For a while it felt like Trump, mind forever in the ‘80s, was reenacting Reagan, and as time went on it became clear how much mileage the Gipper had gotten out of the “urban crisis” and HIV/AIDS, so that rather than spend prime mover political capital on grinding down “blue” constituencies he could just selectively expose them, saving or even generating political capital
But Trump didn’t have anything like that. Until now.
Now, just by declining to backstop lower governments’ quarantines, he can bid “red” jurisdictions to ease up in a way that puts the burden on “blue” constituencies (and there are a lot more “blues” in “red” territory than vice versa), and jujitsu blue “any cost for human life” sentiment to get them to lifesave themselves into ruin and discredit
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