What if Hillary Was President During the Pandemic?
By 
While Trump will murder many Americans through his sheer incompetence in admitting that COVID-19 is even a thing and then his malevolent incompetence in dealing with it, I’ve been somewhat surprised that Republicans, outside of the Death Caucus, have moved so rapidly for the kind of big government interventions needed to help not only corporations but everyday people through the economic collapse this is causing. And while, no, Republicans aren’t “outflanking” Democrats on this stuff, it’s fair enough to argue that some leading House Democrats aren’t as aggressive as they need to be.
Of course, the only reason Republicans suddenly care about everyday people is that they are afraid Donald Trump will lose in November. It is pure cynicism. I’ll take that cynicism given the situation, but it is what it is.
All this made me think about what all this would have looked like if Hillary Clinton was president. I think there’s two general principles that we can believe in. First, the government response would have been much more aggressive, coordinated, and thorough and that hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved. I don’t think she could have gone full South Korea or China on controlling this, just because the U.S. is so absurdly decentralized and because lots of parts of the nation would have refused just to spite her and own the libs.
But even if you don’t like much about Hillary Clinton and her centrist-leaning politics, there’s no question that her administration would have provided not only more than Trump’s incompetence, but clear advanced competence in marshaling resources and moving toward saving lives. A lot of people are going to die because Donald Trump is president instead of Hillary Clinton and given the age bracket COVID-19 strikes hardest, that is going to be disproportionately Trump voters. Still, dying for whiteness is what they do, so they probably wouldn’t change their vote even knowing this.
On the other hand, is there any chance a Clinton White House can get the economic aid packages needed to help everyday people through a McConnell-run Senate? I think it is extremely unlikely. I think the vast majority of the Republican caucus would gladly allow millions of people, especially the poor, to die in order to deny Clinton a political advantage, thinking ahead to sweeping the November elections with Ted Cruz or Tom Cotton topping the ticket. They’d act for Wall Street but not for you and me.
Most, though not all, Republicans see this for what it is: their political lives. But they deserve zero credit for any of the economic stimulus to come. It’s just cynicism to save Herr Trump and themselves. They didn’t even care until it served Trump’s interests to do so. And they will still act to limit assistance to everyday people as much as they can, unless it directly serves their electoral interests.
In conclusion, I await the direct payment of $3,000 to every American in October, followed by a barrage of ads championing the Trump Checks that will buy his reelection, despite a half-million or more dead Americans by November.