We rethink the week with Dean Spiliotis, Civic Scholar and Presidential Scholar at Southern New Hampshire University; Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science at Iowa State Univ. (affectionately known as “Dr. Politics”); Adele Stan, columnist for The American Prospect and editor of Right Wing Watch; and David Atkins, contributor to the Washington Monthly and a writer and activist from California.
We discuss Pres. Trump’s hospitalization with COVID-19, and what that might mean for his reelection campaign and for down-ballot Republicans across the country. We discuss the tone that Democrats — and especially Joe Biden — should take regarding Trump’s illness, after Trump has spent months downplaying COVID’s dangers, refusing to take any preventive precautions, and denigrating people who actually do listen to scientists and follow their health guidance.
If Trump and his allies get well again — as we all hope — and goes back to work, will his narrative then become: “I told you so. Coronavirus is just like getting a cold or the flu. You’re sick for a while but then you’ll fully recover and it’s no big worry”? If Trump says this, will his followers actually believe him? We expect, of course, that he’ll deflect any discussion of the extraordinary, experimental treatments which he was offered, but to which ordinary Americans don’t have access.
We wonder about Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. She contracted COVID just this summer, recovered, and last week was exposed (maskless) to the same super-spreader event in the Rose Garden which resulted in so many infections already. What if she gets COVID again? Even if she doesn’t get diagnosed again, what if she has post-COVID side effects or related conditions, resulting from her first infection this summer? Some “long-haulers” suffer from cognitive difficulties in the months after recovering from COVID. What would happen if Barrett were a sitting Justice on the Supreme Court and started suffering from cognitive difficulties?
We discuss the upcoming debate between VP Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris. We doubt that the VP debate will be anywhere near as contentious (to use a generous characterization) as the presidential debate/debacle last week. What tone should the contenders strike, in the context of the latest news?
We also talk about continuing Republican interference with people voting by mail, including Texas’s recent order shutting down all but one ballot-dropoff site (per county) for voters who want to vote absentee in order to avoid contracting coronavirus. This includes one county that is as big as the entire state of Rhode Island! Even though voting rules are typically set by each state, one wonders to what extent will the Constitution permit Texas to deprive so many people of their fundamental right to vote?
And then of course there is voter intimidation. Trump has called out white supremacists and vigilantes — “my supporters” — to go into polling places and “stand by,” so they can jump into action if they observe any (imaginary) election fraud. They could well cause chaos and disrupt the election if, for example, they challenge voters of color, students, and other voters who they deem likely to be voting for Democrats. Outside the polling places, Trump’s “Proud Boys” and the “Boogaloo Boys” will probably be carrying military-style weapons as they stare down potential voters.
