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One of the critiques that is often leveled at the NeverTrumpers is that, even as they reject the current presidents words and deeds, they fail to assume any responsibility for how we got here. That isnt true of Stuart Stevens, who once served as Mitt Romneys campaign strategist. Hehas writtena courageous piece titled, Republicans like me built this moment. Then we looked the other way.

The failures of the governments response to thecoronavirus crisiscan be traced directly to some of the toxic fantasies now dear to the Republican Party. Here are a few:Government is bad. Establishment experts are overrated or just plain wrong. Science is suspect. And we can go it alone, the world be damned.

As the country deals with the fallout of this administrations failure to respond to a pandemic, it is important to remember that it didnt all start with Donald Trump.

During his 1981 inaugural address, the patron saint of the Republican PartyRonald Reaganfamously said that Government is not the solution to our problem, governmentisthe problem. He was articulating a foundational principle of the modern-day GOP, which sees government as the enemy of free-market capitalism.

Leading up to Reagans election, Republicans used the so-called Southern Strategy to win over support from the majority of white Americans for their efforts to dismantle the federal government. Harkening back to the Civil War, they did so under the banner of state rights, and by claiming that federal government initiatives were designed to help those people.

During the Reagan era, a strategy to starve the beastwas incorporated, which promoted tax cuts as a way to reduce federal revenue. One of the main proponents of that strategy was Grover Norquist, who famously said, I dont want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

Fast forward to 2016 and we have Donald Trump running for president on a promise to drain the swamp. As we now know, that wasnt an allusion to ending corruption. While serving as White House chief strategist, Steve Bannonexplainedthat the goal was the deconstruction of the administrative state. Through a combination of incompetence and malevolence, they have been wildly successful in those efforts.

Because most of the programs and regulations administered by the federal government are supported by the majority of Americans, advocating for their dissolution has always required subterfuge. That is why one of the fallbacks has always been to employ racism. But when it came time to starve the beast, Republicans invented the lie of trickle-down economics, suggesting that tax breaks to the wealthy would somehow trickle down to the rest of us.

All of that meant that, as David Robertswrote, Republicans became the post-truth party.

Republicans thus talk about taxes and spending and regulation in the abstract, since Americans oppose them in the abstract even as they support their specific manifestations. They talk about cutting the deficit even as they slash taxes on the rich and launch unfunded wars. They talk about free markets even as they subsidize fossil fuels. They talk about American exceptionalism even as they protect fossil-fuel incumbents and fight research and infrastructure investments.

In short, Republicans have mastered post-truth politics. Theyve realized that their rhetoric doesnt have to bear any connection to their policy agenda. They can go through different slogans, different rationales, different fights, depending on the political landscape of the moment. They need not feel bound by previous slogans, rationales, or fights. Theyve realized that policy is policy and politics is politics and they can push for the former while waging the latter battle on its own terms. The two have become entirely unmoored.

In order to sell those lies, Republicans had to reject things like facts, science, and math. Experts on those matters were labeled elitists (most often relegated to liberal coastal states) who were attempting to silence the heartland. That became a rallying cry of the so-called populists during the 2016 election. This cartoon captures what it means to reject elitists who happen to be the experts.

That attitude helps explain how we wound up with a man in the White House whose major claim to fame had previously been to star in a reality television series.

As the saying goes, Im old enough to remember that Republicans howled when, during a 2004 debate, John Kerrysuggestedthat a presidents decision to go to war should pass a global test of legitimacy. Four years later, they accused President Obama of leading from behind when he attempted to partner with our allies. Those were the harbingers to Trumps isolationism captured by his America First mentality.

A Republican president is now presiding over the federal governments response to a pandemic. He is doing so with a bureaucracy that has been decimated, while he lies, rejects the advice of experts, and assumes that a virus can be stopped by building walls. Stevens sums it up by writing, What is happening now is the inevitable result of a party that embraced fear, weaponized xenophobia, and regarded facts as dangerous, left-wing landmines that must be avoided.

Of course, the first order of business for all of us is to get through this pandemic as best we can. But we should never forget that it wasnt just Trump that failed in his response. He is heir to decades of Republican principles that paved the way for needless suffering on a massive scale.

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A Republican admits that the toxic fantasies of his party have led us to an unprecedented crisis - AlterNet

Asked if he would extend current guidelines on social distancing if it was recommended by public health experts, Trump said: "If it were up to the doctors, theyd say lets keep it shut down, lets shut down the entire world ... We cant do that."

Trump launched the federal government's "15 days to slow the spread" campaign last week, advising Americans to limit social gatherings to 10 people, work from home and avoid discretionary travel.

In a late-night Twitter stream, he retweeted several posts advocating letting the guidelines lapse at the end of the 15-day period.

"The fear of the virus cannot collapse our economy that President Trump has built up," one of Trump's retweeted posts said. "The People are smart enough to keep away from others if we know that we are sick or they are sick! After 15 days are over the world can begin to heal!"

Trump also retweeted a post saying "Flatten the curve NOT the Economy" and another saying: "15 days, then we keep the high risk groups protected as necessary and the rest of us go back to work."

In an appearance on Fox News, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, 69, said: "No one reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance for your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?

"And if thats the exchange, Im all in."

Patrick, who is essentially the state's vice-governor, continued: "I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me - I have six grandchildren - that, what we all care about, and what we love more than anything are those children. And I want to live smart and see through this but I dont want the whole country to be sacrificed."

Speaking on Fox News White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said: "The President is right. The cure can't be worse than the disease. And we're going to have to make some difficult trade-offs."

The toughest measures to prevent the spread of the virus - such as stay-at-home orders and closures of non-essential businesses - have all been taken by state governors and mayors, rather than the federal government.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.Credit:AP

But if the Trump administration were to soften or remove its guidelines, it could embolden Republican-controlled states to avoid taking action and discourage conservative Americans from practising social distancing.

Confirmed coronavirus cases continue to rise in the US as testing becomes more widely available. At least 500 people have died from the illness and over 43,000 people have tested positive.

Democrats and Republicans have still not been able to agree on the final form of a massive economic rescue package that remains stuck in the Senate. On Monday afternoon (Tuesday AEDT) Democrats again voted to block the bill from proceeding to a vote.

Democrats particularly oppose what they are calling a $US500 billion ($845 billion) "slush fund" that would be under control of the US Treasury Secretary.

Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer said he was "very close" to reaching a deal with the Trump administration on what would be the "largest emergency funding bill in American history".

"Our goal is to reach a deal today," he said.

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Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell slammed his Democratic Senate colleagues.

"They out to be embarrassed," he said.

"This is not a juicy political opportunity, this is a national emergency... The country doesn't have time for these political games."

The cost of the Senate bill is currently $US1.6 trillion and that amount is likely to grow even larger as negotiations continue.

Matthew Knott is North America correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

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Republicans say the virus fight may cost the economy too much - Sydney Morning Herald

It shouldnt take a global pandemic to bring to light the impact of the Republican partys war on the working class, but now that its here, the real-life consequences of their coddling of big business is plain to see. Along with the health threat of the coronavirus, workers now must also worry about the economic consequences of staying home sick without pay. Thats why the coronavirus economic relief bill put forward by the House Democrats required paid sick leave.

But ever watchful for corporate interests over those of working men and women, Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration balked and demanded that companies with more than 500 employees be exempted. Together with hardship exemptions for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, the benefit could exclude up to 80 percent of workers. While many large employers do offer sick leave, not all do, and few offer the 10 days or more needed to address coronavirus recovery times. Other large employers have announced temporary changes to grant sick leave during the current crisis, but still refuse to offer the benefit as a matter of course.

When the economic security of millions of hourly workers is threatened in unprecedented ways, its an outrage that Republican leadership is more concerned about corporate profits already fattened by their 2017 trillion-dollar tax cut than the welfare of ordinary Americans.

At a time when we need to desperately flatten the curve to reduce demands on the U.S. healthcare system that will be stretched beyond its breaking point, low-wage workers will be confronted with the untenable decision of showing up to work sick or staying home without pay.

Meanwhile, hypocrites like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who as a state legislator backed a bill prohibiting Florida cities and counties from requiring paid sick leave, left work to self-quarantine with full pay and no risk of being fired.

Quite simply, Republicans continue to protect billion-dollar companies rather than the workers who generate their profits. As Rep. Rosa DeLaura (D-3rd District), remarked, It should not and must not take a pandemic to get working people the economic relief and stability they need.

Alone among the developed world, the United States does not have a national paid sick leave law because corporate lobbyists like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce consistently oppose it, abetted by Republican leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who call it part of a Democratic ideological wish list.

While 12 states and the District of Colombia require paid sick leave (with Connecticut being the first do so, in 2011), the trend has been the opposite in Republican-controlled state legislatures. Not satisfied to block state-level laws requiring paid sick leave, 22 Republican governors have made it illegal for municipalities in their states to require paid sick leave, pushed by the Koch brothers and the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council.

Conservative legislators and business lobbyists are blocking paid sick leave at the expense of public health. A recent study found that requiring paid sick leave reduced cases of flu by 11 percent in the first year following implementation of the law. Considering the flu kills from 12,000 to more than 50,000 Americans each year, corporate greed and GOP opposition to paid sick leave is very likely killing Americans. The impact may be magnified, as lower-paid workers who are most likely to lack paid sick leave are more likely to be jobs with above-average contact with the public, such as food service workers, four out of five of whom dont have paid sick leave.

Opponents of paid sick leave claim it is too costly for employers. The argument lacks merit. There are many companies that do look out for their employees, and their customers, and manage to turn a profit. A just-released working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research estimates that paid sick leave, on average, costs just three cents per hour worked.

In 2017 President Trump and the GOP pushed through a tax cut that led to a record $800 billion of stock buybacks by companies newly flush with cash. But mandating a paid sick leave benefit costing less than one-half percent of the $7.25 federal minimum wage? Dead on arrival.

Jonathan Perloe lives in Greenwich.

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Republicans again value corporate profits over the working women and men - The CT Mirror

Every week, Rewire.News highlights trends in abortion-related legislation moving through the states, and how those bills might affect abortion access. This week, we look at Wyomings dubious born-alive bill, a trigger law in Idaho, and anti-abortion efforts in Kentucky.

Wyoming

A bill based on the anti-abortion myth that doctors commit infanticide after so-called failed abortions passed the Wyoming House last Wednesday, two weeks after it passed the state senate. SF 97 now heads to the desk of Gov. Mark Gordon (R), an opponent of abortion rights.

Republicans in state legislatures across the country, as well as U.S. Senate Republicans, have pushed similar born-alive legislation, which relies on misinformation about later abortion care disseminated by anti-choice activists and legislators.

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The Wyoming bill, which would impose a penalty up to 14 years in prison for a physician who violated its provisions, is even more punitive than the U.S. Senate legislation. Democratic lawmakers opposed to the bill expressed concern, according to the Casper Star-Tribune, about the chilling penalties that could cause physicians to pause or even decline to facilitate procedures necessary to save a life or prevent further suffering by the childeven if requested by the parent.

Wyoming already prohibits abortion after viability, except to protect the pregnant persons life or health, and physicians in the state only provide first-trimester abortion care, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Wyoming.

Two other anti-choice Wyoming billsa near-total abortion ban and a 48-hour forced waiting periodfailed to advance in the legislature this session.

Idaho

In a party-line vote last Thursday, Republicans in the Idaho Senate passed a so-called trigger ban that would prohibit legal abortion if U.S. Supreme Court conservatives strike down Roe v. Wade.

Idaho had passed a trigger law after the landmark Roe decision in 1973, but it was repealed in 1990, the Post Register reported. Under the bill now being considered in the Republican-dominated legislature, a doctor would face up to five years in prison for providing abortion care. SB 1385 was referred to a house committee for a possible hearing, the Post Register reported.

Eight states already have trigger laws on the books; Utah will soon become the ninth if the states governor signs a bill passed by the Republican-controlled legislature Thursday.

Kentucky

Kentuckys Republican-controlled house passed legislation last Tuesday that seeks to amend the state constitution to state that it doesnt guarantee a right to abortion. If HB 67 receives three-fifths of the vote in the state senatewhere Republicans hold 29 of 38 seatsthe amendment will then go before voters this fall, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.

Amending the state constitution is a tactic used by Republicans in several state legislatures this year.

House Republicans also approved HB 451, a measure that wouldincrease the power of the Republican state attorney general to seek penalties against abortion clinics for violating medically unnecessary regulations. Lawmakers said the bill, which would allow the attorney general to act without the authorization of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshears administration, would turn the attorney general into a special prosecutor against abortion clinics, theCourier-Journal reported. The legislation now heads to the state senate.

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Wyoming Republicans Attack Later Abortion Care: Spotlight on the States - Rewire.News

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll has revealed sharp partisan divides between Americans over the coronavirus pandemic.

The poll found 68 percent of Democrats are worried that someone in their family could catch the virus, while just 40 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of independents share that concern.

The gulf in perception over an outwardly nonpolitical issue underscores how signals from politicians and media outlets have played a critical role in shaping how seriously Americans are taking a viral outbreak that has overwhelmed health care systems and triggered mass quarantines in several countries around the world.

Nearly 80 percent of Democrats believe the worst is yet to come, but just 40 percent of Republicans and 57 percent of independents believe that. Overall, 53 percent of all voters are concerned that someone in their immediate family might contract the coronavirus, and 60 percent believe the worst is yet to come.

The poll also found 56 percent of Democrats believe their day-to-day lives will change in a major way in the future while just 26 percent of Republicans hold that view.

In response to every question about whether a respondent would change plans that would expose them to others, like travel, eating out at restaurants, and attending large gatherings, Democratic voters consistently responded affirmatively at much higher rates than Republicans. For example, 61 percent of Democrats said theyve stopped or plan to stop attending large public gatherings, but only 30 percent of Republicans said the same.

The partisan disconnect is not due to a lack of information among conservatives or a function of not hearing much about the outbreak in certain regions of the country. NBC reports that 99 percent of respondents said theyve seen, heard, or read about the spread of the coronavirus and 89 percent say theyve heard a lot about it the highest percentage that one of their polls has found for a major event since 2009.

The more likely explanation is that, as with so many other issues, people with different political ideologies consume different kinds of information and take cues on how to think about events from different political figures and institutions. Given that President Donald Trump and media institutions that cater to conservative audiences, like Fox News, have been downplaying the issue from day one, its not surprising that Republican voters are not nearly as alarmed as Democrats.

Still, as the virus spreads and more people know someone affected, the typical partisan divides might not hold.

Ever since it has been clear that the US was at risk of a serious outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Trump has continually downplayed the risks it poses and dragged his feet on policy responses that would help contain and mitigate the spread of the virus. Reporting indicates that he has done this in part because hes worried about the political damage that would accompany treating the situation as a full-blown crisis.

As Voxs German Lopez has explained, Trump has underplayed whats at stake on many occasions:

Trump himself has tweeted comparisons of Covid-19 to the common flu which [director of the Harvard Global Health Institute Ashish] Jha describes as really unhelpful, because the novel coronavirus appears to be much worse. Trump also called concerns about the virus a hoax. He said on national television that, based on nothing more than a self-admitted hunch, the death rate of the disease is much lower than public health officials projected.

And Trump has rejected any accountability for the botched testing process: I dont take responsibility at all, he said on Friday.

Jha described the Trump administrations messaging so far as deeply disturbing, adding that its left the country far less prepared than it needs to be for what is a very substantial challenge ahead.

Trump also downplayed the issue by initially declining to get tested for it despite close contact with people who tested positive for the virus last week. He also never self-isolated despite being at risk of carrying the virus and spreading it to others (public health experts say it is possible to spread the virus even if youre not showing symptoms).

Trump did eventually get tested days after his exposure and on Saturday, the White House physician said the test was negative. But his behavior stood in stark contrast to Republican politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who has self-quarantined after learning he came in contact with people who have tested positive for the coronavirus. Cruz reports he is currently showing no symptoms.

Conservative news outlets like Fox News have also promoted skepticism of the seriousness of the coronavirus as a serious health hazard as part of an effort to shield the Trump administration from criticism. Here are just a few examples, via progressive watchdog Media Matters:

- Fox prime-time host Sean Hannity claimed people are faking concern about coronavirus just to bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.

- On her Saturday night show, Fox host Jeanine Pirro downplayed the possibility that the coronavirus is more deadly than the flu, arguing that thats only because theres a flu vaccine and if not for the vaccine, the flu would be a pandemic. Pirro somehow drew the conclusion that this means that the talk about coronavirus being so much more deadly [than the flu] doesnt reflect reality.

- Fox host Pete Hegseth downplayed the impact of coronavirus: I feel like the more I learn about this, the less there is to worry about.

- On Hannity, Fox News medical correspondent Marc Siegel said that the worst case scenario with coronavirus is that it could be the flu.

Other prominent right-wing commentators like radio personality Rush Limbaugh have painted coronavirus fears as a ploy to stop Trump rallies.

Messaging from Trump and hard-right news outlets like Fox News has diverged from the consensus among scientists and public health experts around the world who have indicated coronavirus is a serious health hazard that could easily overwhelm the US health care system and kill millions of Americans if not taken seriously by the federal government.

While mainstream and liberal media outlets have focused on pleas from the public health and scientific communities about the serious risks posed by the coronavirus, some conservative outlets and the Trump administration have gone the opposite way. And that in turn has led to a gap between liberals and conservatives on how seriously to take it.

Experts say that by the time everyone takes it seriously, it may be too late to mitigate risks.

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Poll: Democrats are more worried about the coronavirus than Republicans - Vox.com