It’s not quite like a scene out of The Walking Dead. But the Washington, D.C., area, like other cities across the world, possesses an eerie quality without the usual hustle and bustle, car traffic, and other sounds of daily metro life.
In one way, the capital is just how it was: A deadly virus with no cure and no vaccine isn’t enough to put the brakes on partisan politics. Partisanship is about as immune to the regular forces of nature and destruction as roaches or Twinkies.
The coronavirus has disrupted daily life in almost every way. The Kentucky Derby, run on the first Saturday every May, has been pushed back to September. It marks only the second time in the race’s 145-year history it did not take place as scheduled. The only other time was in 1945, and it took the surrender of Germany in World War II to keep it from getting canceled completely.
Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NHL — all play suspended until further notice. Broadway plays and musicals are shut down. Major hotel chains are closing facilities, as are casinos in Las Vegas. Movie productions have shut down, and studios have pushed back premieres. Late-night talk shows, rather than go on without a studio audience, have shut down production. Saturday Night Live suspended production for three weeks, at least.
The coronavirus roiled Wall Street and the job market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sat just below 30,000 on Feb. 19. At the closing bell on March 18, the market finished below 20,000. All of the gains made since President Trump took office in 2017 got wiped out in less than a month. Mass layoffs, particularly in the restaurant industry, have started. Some estimates say the number could reach 4 million layoffs within weeks. Automakers have closed plants in North America. Fast food and coffee chains such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Chick-fil-A have closed their seating areas across the country, restricting purchases to the drive-thru or to-go orders only.
On the government front, states and municipalities have moved to shut down bars and restaurants, limiting them to takeout and delivery orders. In my neighborhood, the Penrose section of Arlington, Virginia, the XSport Fitness branch typically teems with people at all hours. Now, the front door is chained and padlocked. Bob and Edith’s Diner, an area staple since 1969, open 24 hours and always filled with patrons and a full parking lot, closed its dining room, offering only takeout and delivery between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
It’s as if society put up a giant stop sign. That said, the government never really shuts down, and amid a pandemic, it’s perfectly natural for people to look to the government for guidance, especially at the federal level. The coronavirus pandemic is unique in that it’s happening at the same time as a presidential election, amping up the political rhetoric and finger-pointing despite everyone swearing it’s a time for partisan politics to be set aside.
In some corners of the Left, everything is Trump’s fault, no matter the issue. It’s ironic to watch people who’ve spent three years attempting to paint Trump as an authoritarian goon now ululating that Trump is slow to exercise federal power. On the Right, particularly among Trump’s fervent base, the blame gets leveled at Democrats, the press, and “Never Trumpers” who, they say, want to do anything to “get Trump” and have created unnecessary fear and panic as a result. As is often the case, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Some of the criticism leveled at Trump has been unfair, with bogus accusations of “cuts to the CDC” coming from Democratic members of Congress. The reality is, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received budget increases every year since Trump’s inauguration. The press have played up worst-case scenarios of the coronavirus without tempering them with best-case outlooks from the same experts. The media, as of late, have a bizarre fascination with pressing Trump on why he calls it the “Chinese virus,” a phrase they say is racist. Trump’s response? “Because it comes from China.” Reporters were calling it the “Wuhan virus” in the early stages of the outbreak, so the sudden concern from the press corps rings awfully hollow. A member of the New York Times editorial board engaged in an egregious case of dishonesty when she tweeted a partial quote from the president that made it appear he told states they were on their own to purchase ventilators and respirators for patients requiring intensive care. Trump’s full comments made clear the federal government would help, but if states had a faster way to obtain the necessities, they shouldn’t wait.
At the same time, some of the criticism directed at Trump is fair. Despite his protestations and the constant reminder that he banned travel from China early on, Trump did attempt to downplay the impact of the virus in the United States. The president has a penchant for sometimes thinking he can talk trouble away by dismissing it as no big deal, even when that puts him at odds with the experts around him. What’s worse is when Trump expresses outright dishonesty, as he did last week when he claimed he took the coronavirus seriously from the start, when there’s video that shows the exact opposite.
Trump also manages to find time to bloviate on Twitter about his political adversaries, including his likely opponent in the 2020 race, Joe Biden. Trump’s supporters point to Biden criticizing Trump and say, “Well, he’s just responding.” True, but at a time when people are losing their jobs because of a pandemic, Trump would be better served to ignore Biden and say, “I have more important things to do.” There are times and places to punch back.
With a healthcare crisis wreaking possible havoc on the economy, even a proposed stimulus package faces political squabbling that could delay the implementation of the very measures it purports will assist citizens and businesses, both large and small. At a certain point, both Republicans and Democrats will have to look past the shouting coming from their active bases and at what’s best for the country, the political consequences be damned.
Still, it’s not the first time the nation faced a test of such magnitude. The Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cuban missile crisis, the civil rights movement, the Cold War, and the 9/11 attacks are some examples of challenges the nation not only endured, but wound up thriving in during the aftermath.
In trying times, it’s up to our political leaders and the press to focus on the big picture and deal with the gravity of the situation instead of focusing on petty political issues. Such trivialities certainly qualify as catnip for those of us inside the Beltway but do not matter at all to someone who just lost his or her job, or worse, a loved one to an enemy that doesn’t take sides.
Jay Caruso is managing editor of the Washington Examiner magazine.
