trying to wrap my head around why everything in the US is turned into a political battle--from the most trivial culture war stuff to major national crises such as the response to COVID-19. Is it a Gramscian thing where a ruling class in crisis is unable to maintain ideological hegemony?
Not to be facetious, but... that's sort of a tautology, isn't it? The political sphere encompasses the polity at all times. Art, labor, leisure, your consumption habits--everything is politicized, even if only in small and unimportant ways.
I don't disagree, but for example, Trump's decision in April to let the states take the lead in combating coronavirus instead of the national government is a very strange decision that I've been trying to understand for a while now. Most national emergencies and crises have been addressed by national leadership rather than the state leadership. And none of the other major countries have done anything like this--they have organized the COVID-19 response on a national level.
The only explanation that makes sense to me is that Trump wanted to distance himself from any possible culpability given the looming election. But if that's the case, then it seems to me like whether or not the federal government should act during national crises has now become politicized, whereas previously, it had been assumed that the national government should absolutely lead the response.
IDK, maybe I'm misreading things somehow, but the current moment feels like an escalation in this regard compared to even a decade ago.
I think handing off control of the states is a way for the right and business class to downplay the seriousness of the virus, not just a way to escape culpability for an election.
even if that's the case, Trump's decision was still hotly criticized by the liberal elite. The NYT and all the think-tank people seem to agree that the national government should have led the pandemic response--and they surely represent the business class as well. It just seems crazy to me that whether or not the US government should lead a pandemic response has become a part of the political debate rather than a point of assumed agreement among the different factions of US capitalists. I can't imagine this debate happening during Bush or Obama.
I'm positive if Obama attempted to take command of this federally, he'd be accused by rightists of making some kind of elaborate power grab.
Bush as well? or any of the other preceding neoliberals? Is this really business as usual in US politics?
No, I mean Obama specifically. The accusations would come from the right.
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The level of government intervention at both the federal and state level to resolve this crisis is just not available in America. So the only way to treat this was to decouple responsibility at all levels.