the united states simply does not have the structural tools or ideology to cohesively handle a pandemic, or anything that requires a team effort and potential sacrifice of individual liberties/mobility. this has more to do with institutional failings in education and economy than individual faults. either way, the pandemic was always going to be worse in the united states than other nations of comparable wealth/industry because of its extremism. however, as much as i detest biden/obama, i do believe that from a mere capability standpoint they would have done better than trump did, even if only marginally. this derives more from their own ethos or preserving neoliberal america, while trump attempts to tear it down to some degree.
certainly some states did worse than others, however the response from america's leadership was pretty horrible across the board. look at cuomo -- in the beginning of the pandemic he was being hailed as a hero, and now with the cobwebs removed, it has been shown that even the most 'liberal' states do not possess the tools to deal with the pandemic. "we did all we could" doesn't mean much when thousands of people are dying daily, and means even less when there was much more that could have been done from the beginning. of course, america (and every capitalist nation, really) is unable to remove its ideological glasses, and truly revolutionize how it dealt with the pandemic, as ASMR said. a
lot of people died from this, and many will have their lives ruined for the foreseeable future.
i am aware that you are a conservative
Sickist. i'm not sure what kind, but i will say that the standard conservative responses to the pandemic were even worse than the lukewarm liberal ones. opening businesses, pivoting from "covid-19 being the greatest tragedy" into "covid-19 is a farce designed to crush you," questioning its existence, and utilizing covid-19 as a supporting piece of evidence for future military engagement with china were all incredibly popular perspectives on fox news, and while i do not know if you share any of these talking points, they were objective positions within your party.
here's a thought: whether or not the lockdowns ceased or continued was of no consequence to your political leaders. no matter what happens, they
win. this is not a repeat of the "the rich win no matter what happens" argument (although that too is true), but of another perspective that politically this was a victory for a plethora of conservative forces. thousands of smaller businesses died over the course of the pandemic, with some business owners reaching regional/national fame for their efforts to defy the "tyranny" or liberal government and lockdowns. on one hand, these businesses shutting down is favorable for their campaigns and economic beliefs: small people don't donate and lobby for legislation in the same way larger corporations can, and the absorption of their market share creates a mutual benefit.
why did the governor of georgia approve the ending of lockdowns so early? because it meant that certain loans could no longer be granted to businesses because they were allowed to operate at "full capacity," knowing full well that it is not sustainable or possible to have such commerce during the pandemic's height. the result is they are cut off from government support, absorbed by a larger corporation, and their campaign is strengthened. smaller businesses do not have the capital or savings to recover from such an economic collapse, or at least many do not.
meanwhile, these politicians can say: "we have given you freedom to do as you wish," even though their businesses are collapsing. for states that don't allow the cease of lockdown orders, they can say the same thing, only this time the slogan shifts to "we cannot open up your businesses, and you are going bankrupt because of these democrats," despite both meeting a similar fate. they win either way -- businesses open up and the leadership gets congratulated for sticking it to the liberals, or they remain closed and they get congratulated for "fighting for the little guy," despite not offering even a smidge of what they possibly could to these business owners. instead, they prop up a couple businesses on television who "just want to get back to work" in order to trick the other millions of owners into believing that subjecting themselves, and their
workers to the pandemic is a just expression of freedom. what type of freedom is that?
i think the main point i am trying to get across here is that even within our own ideological framework, we were insufficient in approaching the pandemic. perhaps because for those now vying for power, it doesn't really matter. for those like trump and his cohorts who wish for some magical return to 1776 or the 1950s, i think it might be appropriate for you to ask yourself: why is it impossible for time to move backwards?