A bleak thought: I often tell people not to worry too much about disasters in advanced countries, because such countries are incredibly resilient. They have wealth; they have competent civil services. For example, I've never bought into the disaster scenarios for Brexit 1/
But what if the competence of a country's bureaucracy — aka its deep state — has been undermined by leadership that demands obsequious loyalty, disdains expertise, and punishes anyone who tells it what it doesn't want to hear? 2/
In other words, is Trump's America still an advanced country as we normally imagine it? We have huge reserves of expertise and talent to deal with crises, but these people are disdained and distrusted 3/
It's still not clear whether the message that the coronavirus is a real problem, not a PR issue, has made it through. Albany gets it; Sacramento gets it. The White House? For the first time I'm getting seriously scared 4/
