Conservative: Manliness Amid Outbreak
Why do some conservatives appear to take coronavirus less seriously than liberals? Commentary’s John Podhoretz thinks it’s because the right is “trying to hold fast to notions about how people ought to behave at a moment of crisis and personal peril that are anathematic to the political and social culture of the present day.” More bluntly, “they feel that the panic is unmanly.” Yes, we should prepare seriously, but does that “mean publicly expressing fear and terror of an invisible force that is approaching from afar, or does it mean sobering up and getting to work? . . . Does it mean expressing an almost lubricious negative glee at the size of the potential catastrophe awaiting us, but hiding that strange impulse behind a veneer of concern and prophetic anger — or does it mean a dispassionate determination?” Conservatives are trying to adopt the latter posture. That said, manliness doesn’t mean “pooh-poohing the danger altogether.”
Econ beat: The Fed’s Bad Move
In response to coronavirus fears, the Federal Reserve on Sunday slashed interest rates to near zero, created a massive new asset-purchase program and boosted dollar-swap lines. That’s “one of the biggest, multifaceted and coordinated monetary policy interventions in history” — but, Bloomberg Opinion’s Mohamed El-Erian warns, the “firing of so many bazookas” at once may end up backfiring. Not only will the Fed’s actions have “no effect in restoring economic activity for the time being,” they may actually make markets trade down by inducing worried long-term investors to exit rather than enter stocks: The Fed appears to have exhausted its monetary options already, and the scope of its actions may just reinforce panic. Let’s hope this “monumental policy bet” works — but El-Erian doesn’t see “overwhelming odds of success.”
From the right: Fear Is Our Worst Enemy
The coronavirus pandemic is “no time to become captives of fear,” advises American Greatness’ Victor Davis Hanson. The left sees the corona panic as “the magic solution to ending the Trump presidency,” though President Trump’s response so far has been “wise.” That said, the pandemic should lead us to question “the merits of globalization in general” and Chinese integration especially — as Trump has been for years. When the president started “taking on the Chinese juggernaut in 2017,” elites “ridiculed” him — though the virus has shown he was right about China’s being “a serial . . . cheater.” For now, though, we must get past the panic — and remember that our main fear should be “fear itself.”
2020 watch: Dems’ Biden Anxieties
Pennsylvania Democrat Francis Caiazza “does not have that warm, fuzzy feeling for Joe Biden” — and, the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito notes, he’s not the only member of his party to have concerns. In fact, many Democratic strategists are “anxious that Joe Biden is” their nominee — exactly because of voters like Caiazza, who’s voted for the Democratic nominee “since Lyndon B. Johnson” but thinks Biden is “too old to be president.” He’s also worried about Biden’s gaffes and outbursts, which go against what Keystone College Prof. Jeff Brauer called “messaging of bringing normalcy and civility back to politics and governing.” All in all, anxieties about Biden from voters like Caiazza should be worrying party elites: “Not voting at all in Pennsylvania is as damaging to Democrats as voting for Trump.”
Foreign desk: China’s Corona Power-Grab
China’s coronavirus crisis has just “started to lift” — yet, Kristine Lee and Ashley Feng report at The Hill, Beijing has already “launched a powerful campaign to project an image of global leadership” in international organizations and in dealings with other countries. Even before the crisis, “China made overtures to international institutions such as the World Health Organization.” In exchange, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom “refrained from criticizing Beijing” and “instead has gone to great lengths to accommodate” President Xi Jinping. It just goes to show that “even in a period of crisis,” China’s Communist regime “prioritizes control over public safety” — and that the United States and its allies have to resist Chinese efforts to undermine “the free flow of information and global public health.”
—Compiled by Karl Salzmann & Sohrab Ahmari
