Dear Always,
You posted that Trump set up the economy that weathered the pandemic. And asked of Biden to offer policies that would strengthen the country.
I am not convinced that the economy was strong heading into the pandemic. I suspect that Biden is allowing the economy to move slower, as he knows he will not be graded on the economy for at least another year.
What I do know is that Trump could have set up a home front to combat the effects of the pandemic. This would mean a surge in American manufacturing. Bring jobs back to small town America. Increasing exports. Restoring America to the top of the world. And so on. In short, his entire 2016 campaign was gifted to him. What had been practically impossible, became basic necessity.
And he totally flubbed it. He never opened any factories. The CEOs waited to assess the markets and then opened on their own. He did not act on agriculture. Whole crops were destroyed. He did not prop up hospitals. Many came close to breaking. Some did. He did not react to America’s image by implementing triage on our borders. Instead, he went on Twitter and got involved so that a pet dog from Africa could bypass health protocols. He fought with his own health experts. He never even asked China for better data.
And he have out millions of dollars to companies to produce a vaccine. Some of it was never used for that purpose. But the companies were allowed free reign until it came to FDA approval. That is the vaccine saga in a nutshell. Trump gets credit for starting the ball rolling right away. And for clearing away the bureaucratic obstacles. After that, he let things play out. Always claiming that vaccines would be ready, before they actually were.
Trump had a golden opportunity. He so badly blundered, that one wonders if even today he realizes what could have been. I wonder how much Biden realized how much Trump was shooting himself in the foot. But he at least realized that all the people who Trump failed, would come to his side. And that was about the only thing he said for five months.
Pence seemed to have realized that the Republicans squandered the best chance they would ever have of turning back the clock for the American heartland. He looked like he was in a horror movie for those five months.