Trump officials "hope Americans will grow numb to the escalating death toll"; that's their pandemic strategy. It's vile, but is it realistic? 1/ washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
Three reasons to think it isn't. One is a historical parallel: high crime rates were a feature of the US landscape from the late 60s through the 90s — although with a much lower death toll than Covid-19. Did "law and order" disappear as an issue? 2/
Second, fear of the virus is having a big impact on consumer behavior. This will dampen or reverse job losses; also, if people are worried about something in their daily lives, won't it also affect their votes? 3/
Finally, I suspect that many college-educated voters are aware that the US is a failure and a pariah compared with other countries, and that they can't visit Europe. This will make the pandemic hard to forget 4/ 
So I don't think Trump will manage to make this an election about statues 5/
