Ron Klain Saw It Coming

[swag]

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2020/12/ron-klain-joe-biden-donald-trump/617411/

JEFFREY GOLDBERG
DECEMBER 16, 2020

. . . in late January, at a moment when most of us could not imagine that 2020 would soon come to resemble 1918, The Atlantic published an article by Ron Klain titled, “Coronavirus Is Coming—And Trump Isn’t Ready.”

Our Ideas editor, Yoni Appelbaum, had asked Klain, then a private citizen and now President-elect Joe Biden’s chief of staff, to help our readers understand the risks ahead. Klain, who served as President Barack Obama’s Ebola coordinator, suggested keeping an eye on one question in particular: Whether President Trump could bring himself to listen to Anthony Fauci. That, Klain said, would be key.

In the article that resulted from this conversation, Klain wrote, “Five presidents—liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans—have looked to Tony Fauci for advice; it is not impossible to imagine Trump being the first to angrily dismiss the counsel he offers if it does not fit with his own poor instincts.”

I called Klain the other day to ask him how he knew, to such a granular degree, that the Trump-Fauci relationship would go sideways.

“We knew already that Trump has a style of governing that rejects facts and that demands that people see the world his way, that they live in his counterfactual reality,” he said. “He also has a tendency to downplay threats, whatever kind of threats they are. I knew Dr. Fauci well enough to know that he was going to tell the truth and speak out and that sooner or later that would run afoul of the Trump approach to governance.”

. . . more

[underpants]

1. Very insightful

[marble falls]

2. Thought provoking

[aggiesal]

3. Most smart people are very insightful ...

Back in May 1961, Robert Kennedy said,
"There’s no question about it, in the next 40 years a Negro can achieve the same position that my brother has.’

He was not far off. 2008, 47 years later, we elected Obama.

Is Klain this smart?
If his interview with The Atlantic is any measuring stick, he very well could be.

[wnylib]

4. Does anybody remember

discussions here at DU in December, 2019 when this was still a local virus in Wuhan just getting noticed? We talked about how deadly it appeared to be and how people were not being quarantined in Wuhan just before a travel-oriented holiday in China.

Ordinary people with no special medical or biological background could see that a highly contagious virus would eventually spread beyond China in the world of business and tourist travel back then. We watched as cruise ships were prevented from docking. Then Americans were flown back to the States with no PPE for crews or for people who met them on their return, and no isolation on the plane between sick and well people.

Most of us could see then that this would quickly spread. We also knew already that Trump is a despicable POS, but how many of us could imagine the depths of his indifference to the general population? Or that he would DELIBERATELY cause it to spread?

The Atlantic article seems to be prescient, but the author apparently just had a better take on Trump than most of us.

[GopherGal]

6. Yes, I faintly remember

In retrospect it's really astounding:

Then Americans were flown back to the States with no PPE for crews or for people who met them on their return, and no isolation on the plane between sick and well people.

At the time I almost had to think they knew something about the virus that we didn't that made this safe. But they were pretending it made it safe because "we're doing temperature checks". They just willfully ignored the possibility of asymptomatic (or presymptomatic) transmission. A willful ignorance we now know to be quintessentially Trumpian.

[chriscan64]

5. Trump took the lazy shortcut and was doomed to fail.

Any description of Trump begins with his off the charts self-interest. Anyone else close to matching his narcissism takes into account the resistance from others and and at least pretends to be part of regular society. Trump just bull rushes toward what he wants over any obstacle be it other's feelings or the laws of the land.

Reelection was the only thing he pursued since before his inauguration. With that and his self interest in mind, he could have easily used the corona virus to further his aims. Let the experts do all the work, take the credit and look like a hero to voters. That would have involved a little work and the chance for the medical experts to get some of the spotlight. He is mentally and physically unable to share attention and pathologically lazy. The easy way out was to just say the virus wasn't that bad. Sensible attempts to contain it had to be thwarted because reality contradicted the Big Lie.

"Unfit for office" was not just some political slogan thrown around by his opponents. He is and has always been as far from fit as anyone imaginable to hold the office of president.

[Beartracks]

8. Very good post. n/t

[Beartracks]

7. "the Trump approach to governance" represents very loose usage of the word "governance."

Like the oxymoronic "Trump leadership style."

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