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Given the current low-talent, high-misinformation, “I’m-all-right-Jack” environment, it is perhaps no surprise that governments are struggling to come to grips with the coronavirus pandemic. Can anyone bank on a cast of characters who play daily to the rhythms of social media, all with fairly uniform views of society, to grasp the complexity of the challenges now on offer?
Looked at another way, is it any surprise that Donald Trump thrives the best in this polluted environment? Sure, Trump lost this month’s election, but he was elected on the back of massive frustration with do-nothing élites, and has succeeded in making American politics into even more of a circus. Even now, with his lawsuits contesting the election results failing like Monsef and her sums, Trump continues to bend the Republican establishment to his will. The President of the United States of America is right now firing officials who contradict him on the sanctity of the election and ranting like a crazy man, and no one is willing to tell him it’s wrong, out of fear of the online mob. More worryingly, no one is speaking truth to power on the virus as infections surge and hospital capacity dips.
And while Canadians can take comfort in the fact that things are nowhere near as bad in Canada, the virus is spreading rapidly in many provinces and the foundation on which the federal government exists is as narrow and equally leader-driven as in the United States. Indeed, the way Liberal MPs are debasing themselves in the service of Dear Leader in the various committee hearings into the WE scandal is horrifying. Why would anyone volunteer for public life when this is the thanks you get?
