"Shields and Brooks on Trump’s call to reopen, mail-in voting" PBS NewsHour 5/22/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including President Trump’s call to reopen houses of worship despite the pandemic, controversial comments from Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, public opinion on reopening the country, the battle over mail-in voting and Trump’s firing of inspectors general.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  And now we turn to the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks, both joining us from their homes.

Hello to both of you.

I want to start with President Trump today ordering the nation's governors to open up houses of worship, saying, there's nothing they should do to prevent churches, synagogues and mosques from opening up.

Mark, the President told the governors that, if they don't go along with this, he's going to override them, although it's not clear he has the authority to do that.

What do you make of the President's really relentless push to get the country to open up, his leadership at this moment in this pandemic?

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  Well, Judy, the churches are an intriguing and complex problem unto themselves, that someone would order the churches to open.

And the reality is that the biggest concern has been gatherings of 10 or more people.  And churches frequently involve a lot more than 10 people in close quarters.  And they also have that problem with separation.

The President's commitment as a churchgoer brings to mind Tom Wolfe's great line about making world safe for hypocrisy.  This seems to be more political than ecclesiastical or theological on his part.

Judy Woodruff:  And, David, I want to ask you to weigh in too.

And I want to bring in the fact that we are seeing, as the President pushes harder and harder for the country to open up, the support for this is breaking along partisan lines.

We had a new poll this week, "NewsHour"/NPR/Marist, showing that more Republicans are with the President, more Democrats are more cautious.

How do you look at all this?

David Brooks, New York Times:  Yes.

First, the President is not subtle in his culture war fighting.  He wanted to defend Christmas against the alleged war on Christmas.  And now he is doing this.

It's a pretty naked attempt to try to appeal to evangelical voters.  Churches happen to be one of the places where we have seen a lot of super spreading.  One of the Korean churches was in — early in — was one of the worst things that happened.  And so that's — it's just foolish.

The second foolishness is that a national policy here is just not a good policy.  This is very context-specific.  This virus is very decentralized.  It hits one place, it doesn't hit another.

So, every decision that should be made, in my view, should be at the local possible-list level.  And so Trump is just — it's just politics.  It's just words out of his mouth.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark, in terms of the President's overall determination to get the country to open up, is this something that, in the long run, he looks stronger as a leader for having done this?

Mark Shields:  Well, Judy, I think the President, understandably, wants to switch the subject.

It's interesting.  ABC News has measured each month people's confidence in the President's leadership and their trust of him on handling the coronavirus.  It was — it reached a high of 54 percent in March.  Then it dropped down to 44 percent.  And now in the latest, in May, it's at 39 percent.

So, the President wants to get off the — his coronavirus shepherding and get back, he hopes, to an economy, which was his calling card for reelection, and that somehow, in the next six months, he could — well, five months, I guess now in a couple of weeks — that it could get revitalized confidence and optimism in the economy, and show some progress.

That's it.  I mean, it hasn't worked for him as 'surgeon general.'  And he's got to try and do it as the economic chief.

Judy Woodruff:  And just quickly on this, David, one other thing.

A lot of people commenting when the President goes out, as he is trying to, he's not wearing a mask.  Does it matter that the President doesn't?

David Brooks:  Yes, that's exceptionally poor leadership.  You lead by example.  That's elementary school leadership.

I think the worst thing that could happen right now is that we — opening and not opening became a partisan issue.  Republicans and Democrats do differ, but not all that much.  You still get 75, 77 percent of the country supporting social distancing.

In our polarized age, you just don't get that much.  If you look at the movement in red and blue states, there's no real difference in how people are behaving.

There's a significant distance — difference in how people see the future.  Democrats, by some gigantic percentage, 80 or 90 percent, say the worst is still ahead of us.  Republicans, by some gigantic percentage, say that worst is still behind us.

But the fact is, the opening up is happening.  And it's happening in all 50 states, and it's going to happen everywhere.  And it's not a political decision.  It's a question of striking a balance between safety and economic opportunity.

And so it's not an ideological issue.  It's just the delicate balance that will be different in every single place.