Thread by @SimonWDC

We all need to spend time in coming days on why Trumpworld has found it so difficult to fight the virus.

Yes, there was no federal response, but why did WH itself drop all CDC protocols? Why aren't they masking, isolating now? Why are the rules different for them?

https://twitter.com/SimonWDC/status/1313808540398759941

Even after a virulent outbreak which has spread thru WH, campaign, Pentagon, Senate, House, CA/IN/NJ/OH and who knows where else, Trump, Pence, Meadows, Barr, Coney Barrett, Rudy still not isolating. Masking still appears optional. Why? Why can't they accept realities of COVID?

Their recklessness is endangering their closest aides, colleagues, family. Who would do that? Where does Meadows, for example, go at night? Who does he see? Dude was in hospital room w/Trump when POTUS had no mask on. He could be Corona Mary now. How can he still be working?

Pence not only went to the debate last night inside the 14 day isolation window required because of his exposure at the Coney Barrett CoronaFest, but HE NEVER ISOLATED for a single day. It's been established that testing isn't a prevention tool. Seriously, WTF are they doing?

I don't think there are simple or easy answers here. It's a form of madness, of this repeated ability for Trump to fashion alternative realities but then somehow get others to live there with him, even if it means killing themselves or others.

In my struggle to understand Trump and his defiance of COVID I keep coming back to the curtain being drawn on the Wizard of Oz. Or, the Nazi fable of ubermensch. Or other stories of totalitarian societies where 2+2 didn't equal 4. Orwell.

Feel like the madness behind Trump's crafting of these false realities is itself becoming an issue now - as the brutal reality of COVID is overwhelming Trump's fictional narrative about it.

As the curtain is drawn, they all look more and more absurd.

washingtonpost.com/local/coronavi…

It feels now like the Trumpian bubble is bursting, the fever subsiding, the curtain is being pulled open - and what we are left with right now is an insulting and ridiculous farce, an old, venal and painted man, make up dripping, madly attempting to draw the curtain closed again.

Am sure scholars of authoritarianism like @TimothyDSnyder @ruthbenghiat @anneapplebaum will tell us that you never know when it is that the show stops, the lies are no longer believed, the followers stop following, the regime crumbles.....but I think we may be there now w/Trump.

The campaign appears to be short of cash. Polls are slipping away. The virus keeps spreading in the Capital. The Debate Commission finally told Trump to stuff it. Other Rs are starting to move on.

The Emperor all of a sudden may have no clothes.

washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…

Trump is a deeply diminished figure, but he's not gone. And the goal now is to win the election by a huge margin so whatever treachery he and Barr attempt is seen as the desperate acts of venal men not as the legitimate acts of the US government.

In practical terms, it's critical Congress and leaders of DC/MD/VA step in and force a comprehensive regional response to the outbreak the President's COVID denialism has caused. We have to begin taking away the keys to the car, and keep the region safe.

politico.com/news/2020/10/0…

Look at this new story about Mark Meadows absolutely unbelievable violation of so many different COVID rules, laws, protocols - seriously what happened here with Trumpworld? Why don't the rules apply to them?

ajc.com/politics/top-w…

And look at this - the DC govt begging the White House and its staff to help them ensure this outbreak doesn't become something truly dangerous.

https://twitter.com/NickRiccardi/status/1314280183306825732

And here we are, the Trump peeps still disregarding COVID protocols, working it seems to keep spreading COVID, on purpose.

https://twitter.com/JoshuaPotash/status/1314317676446199808