From Jeff Childers again

Yesterday, the New York Times ran a tremendously intriguing (paywalled) pandemic article headlined, “How a Pandemic Malaise Is Shaping American Politics.” I must give the Times credit for coining that terrific term, pandemic malaise. In essence, the article decried the fact that most Americans have neither forgotten nor forgiven what happened to them during the pandemic.

The article starts off by admitting the obvious: people’s trust in big institutions is down, far down, down at the bottom of the ocean somewhere near the blackened bits of the blown up Nordstream pipeline. Here’s how the Times more or less accurately described the nation’s pandemic malaise:

Public confidence in institutions — the presidency, public schools, the criminal justice system, the news media, Congress — slumped in surveys after the pandemic and has yet to recover. The pandemic hardened voter distrust in government, a sentiment Mr. Trump and his allies are using to their advantage. Fears of political violence, even civil war, are at record highs, and rankings of the nation’s happiness are at record lows. Voters’ views of the nation’s economy and their confidence in the future remain bleak
.
“The pandemic pulled the rug out from under people — showing you were never quite as secure as you thought you were,” Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, a Democrat, said in an interview. “We’re starting to get our grounding back. But I think it’s just hard for people to feel good again.”
High office vacancy rates have crippled downtowns, emphasizing the country has not yet fully recovered. Depression and anxiety rates remain stubbornly high, particularly among young adults. Students remain behind in math and reading, part of the continued fallout from school closures. And even positive news has been met with skepticism.

That was as accurate a description of current events as I’ve ever seen in the Times. Which just goes to show that all along, they knew. They knew, and they know. As far back as late 2020, I warned this would happen, especially as related to local governments whose unqualified commissioners embarked on an unprecedented destructive rampage wielding their newfound emergency executive authorities.

I’d add to the Times’ list of Americans’ post-pandemic gag reflex the fact that most red states drastically pruned local emergency authority, and significantly broadened individual rights.

The Times published its article because it is fretting about Americans blaming Joe Biden — in its view, unfairly — for the unmitigated disaster that the Biden Administration unleashed through its 100% pro-pharma, pro-union, completely political pandemic response.

The Times wanted to help Biden. But it seemed at a loss as to what to do about it. Still, and this is the reason I reported on this story at all, the Times’ article did come tantalizingly close to revealing the actual answer, which is that we need a bipartisan Truth Commission, we need serious reforms limiting emergency powers — including medical integrity, and we need accountability for somebody.

Short of those things, everybody remains in favor of a political wrecking ball. We want to tear down the Times’ darling, the Deep State.

And whatever else he might be, President Trump is a wrecking ball.

Not that the Biden Administration would listen, but the article quietly laid out a real solution. The Times described an effective answer in the voice of the best, most unassailable expert it could find. In other words, it’s not the Times saying this; it’s the experts. Here’s how the Times packaged its politically unappetizing menu, aimed squarely at Team Biden:

Philip D. Zelikow, the lawyer who served as the executive director of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 terror attacks, who led a nonpartisan team of more than 30 experts called the Covid Crisis Group that investigated the pandemic response and published a book of its findings, and who says he opposes Mr. Trump, said the Biden administration moved too quickly to put the pandemic behind it.
“Since the Biden administration never conducted an investigation of the crisis,” Mr. Zelikow said, “and also the Biden administration never developed a serious package of reforms to react to the crisis, the administration basically left the impression that it accepted that the government had failed, but just didn’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“If someone like Donald Trump is elected this fall,” Mr. Zelikow said, “the government performance in the Covid crisis will be a significant cause.”

That is so important. There’s a lot packed into those few words. The whole answer is right there. Here, more plainly, is what the three short paragraphs explained. The major premise, if you will:

The Biden Administration put the pandemic behind it too fast (he refuses to admit people are still hurting).

The Biden Administration never investigated the crisis (he refuses to admit the government made mistakes).

The Biden administration never developed a serious package of reforms after the crisis (he refuses to make sure the same mistakes can’t happen again).

That ‘major premise’ established in people’s minds that Biden, as apparent chief executive, was the problem. Then Mr. Zelikow described what you might call the minor premise, that:

The Biden Administration just accepts that the government failed (oh well, mistakes were made).

The Biden Administration refuses to talk about it anymore (nah, nah, nah we can’t hear you).

The ‘minor premise’ established that Biden can’t or won’t fix the problem (which is him). Therefore, Americans have logically concluded that the government’s poor performance during the covid crisis supports Donald Trump’s election.

The Times intended to warn Team Biden. Think about what this implies: for Biden to rescue his campaign from pandemic malaise — a deep distrust of all the major institutions leading to democrat losses — Biden must rebuild that lost trust, through the classic three part formula: admitting the government hurt people, admitting that it screwed up, and then doing something to ensure it can’t happen again.

It won’t matter how clearly and how often the Times tries to explain it to the Biden campaign; they won’t listen.

This is huge progress. They’ve concluded that the strategy of pretending the whole mess is now behind us and it’s time to move on won’t work. Maybe, just maybe, we can start having some adult conversations about where to go from here. And it ain’t a new WHO pandemic treaty, that’s for certain.