I hold out hope that Americans are less divided than the political parties and ideological elites when it comes to the coronavirus and race. We see that supermajorities of voters support mask-wearing, express concern about going back to “normal” too soon and do not have faith in President Trump’s leadership on the coronavirus.
On race, the vast majority of Americans are on the side of Black Lives Matter, think Trump has made race relations worse and think systemic racism is a big problem.
Last week, for example, ABC News reported, “Evaluation of Trump’s oversight of the covid-19 crisis reached a new low since ABC News/Ipsos began surveying on the coronavirus in March, with 67% disapproving of his efforts. One-third of the country approves of the president’s oversight of the pandemic.” The president may say patently false and dangerous things, such as his false assertion that 99 percent of coronavirus cases are “totally harmless” — with Republican politicians and media hacks nodding in approval or running for cover — but the vast majority of Americans are not buying what he is peddling.
You have to be very ill-informed, for example, to believe that Trump (who for so long refused to wear a mask, promised the virus would magically go away and insisted that things are getting better) is more credible on the pandemic than Anthony S. Fauci (who has warned about the danger of going back to “normal” too soon, urged lifesaving tactics such as social distancing and mask-wearing, and is a key figure in the search for a vaccine). And if you understand Trump’s effort to defame Fauci is ludicrous, why would you support a president so ignorant and/or dishonest that he would downplay a pandemic and avoid coming up with a national strategy for combating it?
Some Trumpers faced with this disagreeable situation are deciding to become warriors against facts.
Well, maybe it is getting better. Who’s to say?
But look at the data: Caseloads are increasing. Hospitalizations are increasing.
Experts have been wrong!
Yes, which is why they qualify their opinions and revise them based on new evidence.
Likewise on race, Americans of good will do not buy that the long list of African Americans killed by police are simply the result of a few bad apples. When NASCAR and the American Civil Liberties Union are on the same side, you have a remarkably broad coalition.
All the rationalization, reinterpretation and refusal to comment on Trump’s inanities might suggest the country is “deeply divided” on coronavirus. Media personalities, social media algorithms and politicians sure make it seem so. Conservative media moguls have been quite effective in crafting what appears to be a large ecosystem of rabid, irrational cultists and blind party loyalists. Nevertheless, actual experts are not divided; the public is not unanimous, but it is hardly “deeply divided.”
Likewise, Trump’s efforts to create out of whole cloth a roving mob of antifa rioters to divert voters concerned about police brutality suggests he has no credible defense for his refusal to acknowledge and address racism. He is down to the hardcore Confederate flag wavers, meaning a very wide swath of Americans are allied.
In sum, our politics may be worse than our body politic. I asked Yascha Mounk, founder of a new magazine and community named Persuasion, whether we are as hopelessly divided as we keep hearing. (Persuasion was founded to defend liberal Democratic values and create a civil community for actual debate.) Acknowledging the consensus on coronavirus and very wide agreement on whether there is need to reform policing (yes), whether systemic racism exists (yes) and whether to do away with the police (no). “Maybe the American people are quite united and the elites are the most divided,” Mounk said. The question then becomes whether “elites will impose their division on us or whether ordinary people will resist.”
That, in large part, depends on whether we collectively support expertise and objective reality. The guffaws, snickering and eye-rolling that greeted Trump’s attempt to undercut Fauci over the weekend suggest there is hope. It also depends on whether we passively accept and indulge social media platforms, which make money by exploiting and increasing differences and creating even more radical users.
One benefit of a blowout election in November would be to dispel the notion that we are a 50-50 country. We might also see real evidence that irrationality, racism, illiberalism and science denial have a weaker hold on regular Americans than it often appears. If we can agree on some broad parameters (racism is a problem; the coronavirus crisis is real and worsening) perhaps we can actually begin to have rational political debates on substance. It sure would be nice to get past the era of gaslighting and willful ignorance.
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