How Coronavirus Punctured the Brexit-Trump Parallels - Jimmys Post

Polling by J.L. Partners for the Times (of London) also found a huge boost in support for the pillars of British civic life. Seventy-four percent of respondents said they felt more positive about the National Health Service, the UK’s public health care system, than they did before the coronavirus outbreak. The poll also found that Brits feel more positive about the Queen, the government and their “local community” than they did before the virus.

It is difficult to attribute these numbers to a materially superior public health response to the crisis in Britain. The government was slow to put in place social distancing measures and has failed to meet its testing targets. A postmortem into the lost days at the beginning of the outbreak is underway in the media, and a formal inquiry into the apparent flirtation with a “herd immunity” strategy now seems likely. But this debate largely is being conducted in the serious, good-faith terms that the moment demands.

The picture is very different in the United States. America’s “little platoons” have come out in force in response to the crisis, some governors have been praised for their response, and Congress eventually managed to agree on a massive bailout package. Yet, Covid-19 broadly has failed to break the strictures of national political partisanship or overcome the lack of trust that defines the relationship between America’s citizens and institutions.

Even after Trump’s about-face on the seriousness of the crisis last month, a party split is clear in Americans’ concern about the virus. According to Pew, 78 percent of Democrats see the pandemic as a major threat to the health of the U.S. population as a whole, compared with 52 percent of Republicans. The state-level response, by and large, has broken along party lines, with Republican governors more reluctant to impose stay-at-home orders. A Monmouth poll published Wednesday found that Americans trust Dr. Anthony Fauci, director National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, far more than other government leaders, during the Covid-19 outbreak. The same poll also found that a majority of Americans think the federal response to the crisis has not gone far enough. While Trump experienced an initial boost to his numbers, it was much smaller than in other countries, and his approval ratings appear to be settling back to where they were pre-crisis.

Britain has advantages over America that make the outbreak of unity less surprising. Apolitical institutions like the monarchy are proving their worth in a time of crisis; the home front and Blitz spirit are powerful forces in the country’s collective memory. Britain’s free-at-the-point-of-use health care system has proved a rallying point during the crisis. These institutions have glued Britain’s political tribes together in trying times.

Some will look at the diverging moods in Britain and America and point to the fact that, while the United Kingdom formally left the EU at the end of January, turning the page on the most tortuous chapter of the Brexit process, Trump remains president and remains divisive—and still could win a second term. America is in the middle of an election year, which heightens divisions. It’s also possible that the darkest days of the pandemic could prove to be something of a temporary truce in Britain.

Still, the emerging UK-U.S. gap exposed by Covid-19 should force a reassessment of Trump-Brexit parallels. While Britain worked itself into a furious lather over the decision to leave the EU, the lasting damage on the country doesn’t look as severe as many have claimed. In America, by contrast, hyperpartisanship predates this president and will surely outlast him. For all that the pandemic has been another disorienting episode of the Trump Show, it has been a reminder that America’s problems are about more than just one man.

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How Coronavirus Punctured the Brexit-Trump Parallels - Jimmys Post
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