The Week In Review
Finally some good news on COVID-19; setting the historical record straight on Trump's conduct in office; and some great Beatles concert footage
On a personal note, today is my last day at the Boston Globe. Here’s my final column.
Next week, I will begin putting more pieces behind a paywall. So if you haven’t subscribed yet, please do!
I promised a podcast this week … and I have failed to deliver. Instead I’ve given you a Zoom cast with my good friend Kim Atkins as we talk about impeachment and Joe Biden’s strangely low media profile. Of course, you can just listen to the episode rather than watch and considering how much worse my Zoom background is compared to Kim’s I almost hope you do!
“Open Season”
There’s been so much going on in national politics that I realized this morning I have not written anything about COVID-19 in weeks. It’s a reflection, I think, of how inured, beaten down, and exhausted we’ve all become to our bizarre, almost year-long reality. Getting through this miserable weather, miserable isolation, and miserable pandemic feels less like living and more like survival.
COVID-19 has so come to define our lives that I had not even noticed until I read it yesterday that more than 100,000 died from the coronavirus in January - making it the worst single month of the pandemic. I knew things had gotten bad. I hadn’t realized they’d gotten that bad.
On Thursday, however, there was finally some much overdue good news.
“President Biden said Thursday that his administration had finalized deals for another 200 million doses of the two coronavirus vaccines authorized in the United States, giving the country enough vaccine by the end of July to cover every American adult.”
Huzzah.
In more good news, Dr. Anthony Fauci said this, “By the time we get to April, that will be what I would call . . . ‘open season,’ namely, virtually everybody and anybody in any category could start to get vaccinated.”
Double huzzah.
There was, however, one piece of bad news that has serious political implications - the Biden administration appears to be backing away from its pledge to reopen schools within 100 days.
As a parent I don’t think any issue has more defined the challenges of this pandemic than schooling. In the Spring, having my kids at home for remote learning nearly broke me. Having them back in school in the Fall gave me a flicker of hope, even if their school day was far shorter than it had been pre-pandemic.
For this school year, I have been very lucky. Beginning in the Fall my kids’ public school set up a remote learning pod at a local movie theater. For them it meant they had an opportunity to see their friends and engage in the kind of social interaction that kids so desperately need. But I’d be lying if I didn’t acknowledge that having them out of the apartment for a few hours so I could get some work done was a godsend. I consider myself very lucky in that I know many parents whose kids are at home all the time. Nonetheless, we’ve had numerous school closings because of positive COVID cases and just finished up one this week. It’s exhausting and since I live in an apartment it’s suffocating. The thought of going through this again next Fall is enough to force me into a fetal position on my bathroom floor.
I know I’m not alone. Every parent I talk to feels the same, which is why the Biden administration needs to find a way to fix this - and soon. To be sure, the president only has so much power over reopening schools because education matters are overwhelmingly handled on the local level. But if the schools aren’t fixed, it is Biden who Americans will hold responsible - particularly those suburban parents who are overwhelmingly responsible for his victory in November. Biden has some leeway. The 100 days pledge is important but that gets us to mid-April - two months before the school year ends. The focus needs to be on what happens in the Fall. The closer to the election that school are open the better it will be. In fact, if most kids are back in school then it will give Biden a big political boost. If they’re not, he is likely to reap an ugly political whirlwind.
Setting the Record Straight
Sometime next week, the Senate will almost certainly vote to acquit Donald Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors. The only real suspense, at this point, is the question of how many Senate Republicans will cast a vote against the former president. My bet is 4 or 5. I’d be shocked if it’s any higher.
But even though there isn’t much doubt about the outcome the impeachment trial has been an important one. Over two extraordinary days of opening statements, the House impeachment managers have laid out a compelling and exhaustive narrative on how Donald Trump subverted the nation’s democratic norms and incited an armed insurrection. I’m not just talking about the events of Jan 6. The presentations by the House managers showed the evolution of Trump’s efforts to steal the election; the promulgation of the Big Lie, and the open embrace by Trump of his supporters violent intentions.
On Thursday, House managers focused on Trump’s refusal to condemn armed extremists who forcibly entered the Michigan statehouse last Spring in a protest over COVID-19 restrictions. They pointed out that he seemed to encourage their efforts and later when a kidnapping aimed at the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, was exposed he mocked her about it. They harkened back to his refusal to condemn the neo-Nazi protesters at Charlottesville. The implication was clear: Trump didn’t simply incite his supporters on Jan. 6. He embraced and endorsed political violence months, even years, earlier.
The Democrats also have gone to great lengths to point out Trump’s unceasing efforts to portray the election as rigged or stolen, months before it even took place. The former president was laying the groundwork for his attempted election theft and it could come as no surprise that so many of his most rabid supporters believed him and attempted on Jan. 6 to undo what they believed to be an attack on democracy.
From a historical standpoint the House managers have, for future generations, put together a body of overwhelming evidence that chronicles Trump’s behavior and will define his presidency. Beyond that, it shows the complicity of Senate Republicans in enabling Trump and protecting him from being held accountable for his actions. It would certainly be better if he was convicted, but creating that record is the next best thing.
“She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”
This week was the 57th anniversary of the Beatles first American concert in Washington DC. The sound is little ragged at times but what an extraordinary cultural document.
What I’m Reading
Cutting and pasting from the mothership newsletter, which finished up this week, here’s a few good things to read:
This essay on how the pandemic has erased entire categories of friendships really rang true for me. This piece by Dan Drezner on how the pandemic is finally hitting the more affluent class also made be feel very seen. Smart take by Emily Badger on what West Virginia should do with the state's newfound political power. Joe Biden's ability to unite Democrats behind his agenda might be his most impressive accomplishment. Perry Bacon Jr. is consistently one of the most insightful writers on American politics.