COVID -19 as a Political Issue in the United States of America
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COVID-19 disaster in the United States is a setback for democracy. The disaster has made the institutions in the country not to function effectively during the crisis (Diamond, 2020). However, it observable that authoritarian regimes have moved decisively managed the crisis to flatten the curve. In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt championed democracy through mobilizing the American industry and produced the ammunition, guns, ships, and the planes required to defeat fascism. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the country is staring at a new existential enemy, which again calls for the mobilizations of the country’s engineering and scientific prowess and its industrial power to fight it. The initiatives to fight the pandemic by the American people will be not only important to its citizens but also the whole world in terms of massive supplies of medicines and other related supplies. If the United States will not rise to the occasion to mobilize its prowess in the medical field and other countries like China’s authoritarian rule help the world, it will shape the opinions in the politics scenes (Diamond, 2020). The people in other countries will think that western democracies, like the United States, did not help them. This crisis will provide a platform in the political perspective of the emergence of humanity from the devastating crisis. If china’s authoritarian rule helps people in the world through a multitude of supplies, it will shape the politics in the world as it will depict freedom and self-government in a bad light, thus leading to hostility.
China is trying to propagate the narrative that the only way to manage a COVID -19 pandemic is to use its semi-totalitarian rule of the people and information after its rapid recovery from the virus. This narrative can be deconstructed in the sense that their instinct of authoritarian to suppress information about the virus exploded in Wuhan. If it had allowed the free flow of information, it would have enabled emergency response and containment (Diamond, 2020). Another point to disapprove of the china draconian communist style of tackling the virus is that Asian democracies like South Korea and Taiwan, along with Singapore with a more transparent non-democracy, have been able to contain the virus (Diamond, 2020). Crises always test the self-government, and COVID -19 pandemic is no different. During the crises, the democracies rely on the consent of the governed and the open information, unlike the use of fear, force, and fraud to control the people in the authoritarian regimes. Authoritarian democracies like china, have been able to cover up the information about the virus, which include their failures. Therefore if the institutions in the democracies cannot deal with crises hence leading to citizens losing faith in democracy as the best form of government and holds the view that the authoritarian regime decisively manages the pandemic democracies will be at great risk to fail. The COVID -19 pandemic is coming at a time when the democracies both at home and abroad are at a mess after it has failed to guarantee civil liberties and political rights in the recent past (Diamond, 2020). The pandemic aftermath may usher in countries foundational changes to their government systems. Many governments’ risks being toppled after this pandemic wreaking havoc on the fragile democracies. This, therefore, points to the fact that the democracies must show that they govern effectively to meet the economic and public health pressing needs during the crisis to suppress the idea that authoritarian regimes manage the pandemic faster and successfully. The American democracy could strain and even rapture if the virus persists, leading to the possibility of jeopardizing the November 3 free and fair elections (Diamond, 2020).
COVID -19 pandemic poses a danger of population density, which is a political issue (Elving, 2020). Increased number of deaths in a certain number of states makes those areas less populated due to the fatalities of the virus. This is a political issue in the sense that the country’s constitution features a low-density bias that provides less populous states disproportionate powers. This is a danger to certain states if the virus ravages the population of one state in relation to the other. This aspect of the cause of the pandemic will lead to disparities in terms of power between the populous states, less populous states, and even widening the existing gap. The dynamics of the congress in terms of the House of Representatives and Senate will change (Elving, 2020). The House of Representatives based on population and senate with fewer population areas the powers will be disproportionate with their sizes. The COVID-19 pandemic has frozen the presidential campaigns in the United States, halting several primaries until June. Democrat Joe Biden has consistently faulted president Trump’s regime on the way he has handled the pandemic to cushion the citizens from further suffering. However, he should find a way to put politics aside and focus on public good during the national crises. To resolve this looming disparity, the leadership should not take advantage of the impact of the crisis to worsen the situation.
The COVID -19 pandemic the United States of America politics of healthcare. There have been challenges in the country’s healthcare; hence it will play heavily in the ongoing campaign in the US election as the issue is already on top of the minds of the voters (Malone, 2020). The central theme of the race in the recent past has been the healthcare policy; therefore, with the outbreak of the virus will see it intensify. There have been attempts to dismantle the Obamacare by Republicans is likely to be the Democratic nominee theme. The country’s healthcare is ill-equipped to tackle the pandemic coupled with inadequate insurance, which is likely to undermine the treatment and containment of the outbreak. As the virus exposes the country’s bad state of the healthcare, it provides a chance for their voters in the country to increase the focus on the benefits of healthcare on the candidate who has better policies in the manifesto. Democratic Candidate Joe Biden may shift his focus towards Medicare for all as a universal health coverage (Malone, 2020).In that sense, the COVID -19 pandemic presents a crucial factor in shaping the platform for Democratic. Besides, dealing with the COVID -19 crisis has presented a looming challenge to President Trump’s presidency (Pantanacce, 2020). Analysts have poked holes in the style that the president has used to respond to the crisis. They have argued the president has been skeptical and slow early on even to the downplaying of the intelligence report of imminent danger of the looming outbreak of the virus. Other criticisms leveled against him are exaggerating claims of preparedness and downplaying the seriousness of the disease. Lately, though, the president has used the daily briefings at the white house to brand himself “wartime president, “which has been perceived as a substitute for his political rallies where he can articulate issues regarding the virus and other issues that emanate from the briefing (Pantanacce, 2020). Politically speaking, the COVID-19 response has provided the president with a platform to prove his leadership during the crisis as the country approaches the elections. To resolve the issue of crisis and the future outbreak of the disease requires the free flow of information and a streamlined healthcare system shaped by the proper political agenda.
References
Diamond, L. (2020). America’s COVID-19 Disaster Is a Setback for Democracy. Retrieved 1
May 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/americas-covid-19-disaster-setback-democracy/610102/
Elving, R. (2020). What Coronavirus Exposes About America’s Political Divide. Retrieved 1
May 2020, from https://www.npr.org/2020/04/12/832455226/what-coronavirus-exposes-about-americas-political-divide
Malone, J. (2020). Politics in the Time of COVID-19. Retrieved 1 May 2020, from
https://www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/politics-time-covid-19
Pantanacce, P. (2020). The political implications of COVID-19 | Standard Chartered. Retrieved 1
May 2020, from https://www.sc.com/en/feature/the-political-implications-of-covid-19/