One of the bigger -- but cheap and easy! -- things a president could be doing right now is asking the nation to come together, stay home as much as possible and wear masks and be careful because it's the right thing to do. As @Lollardfish notes we're mostly doing it anyway...
...but we look to our leaders for cues and those cues, from the top, have mostly been absent, confusing, or counterproductive because Trump's goal is always to win the moment, whatever he thinks the moment is about for him.
The well-funded but small protest movement is trying to cast this in terms of overreaching government orders versus the letter of individual liberties but in the past when we've needed national mobilization there's been a voice saying, "Come together. Do this for each other."
...just realized I've been saying "come together" when no we want the opposite of that, but I mean. Metaphorically. Come together as one and stay the heck apart.
The reason we're wearing masks to the store and avoiding going inside them as much as possible and getting in and out quickly and cleanly when we have to isn't because we're obedient little sheep who can't wait to surrender our liberties.
It's because we understand the stakes.
It's because we understand the stakes.
And we need a leader who understands those stakes and helps articulate them, for the people who don't get it yet, for the people who are sure if it was bad enough to warrant those precautions Somebody In Charge would be saying so in a loud, clear voice.
