Americans endured four years of irresponsible and reckless leadership from former President Donald Trump. Nothing illustrated his complete lack of ability, empathy or leadership aptitude than his response to the Covid-19 crisis. Thankfully, President Joe Biden is now running the nation. Biden has committed to getting the country vaccinated and back to work and school. He recently announced he will direct states to make all adults eligible for coronavirus vaccinations no later than May 1.
In short, the president is governing, guided by science. And hopefully as a result, Americans are starting to regain their respect for and have faith in the federal government.
In order for Americans to safely plan for celebratory July 4th barbecues, Biden needs the help of the states.
But in order for Americans to safely plan for celebratory July Fourth barbecues, Biden needs the help of the states. The federal government will get the vaccine doses to the hundreds, if not thousands, of state vaccination sites, but governors will have to make sure shots get in arms. This will require a herculean localized effort.
The operational challenges will be huge. Unfortunately, the governors of Texas, California, New York and Florida — the United States' four largest states by population, representing one-third of the country — are focusing on their political self-interests while failing the governance test at a time when our country needs it most.
Wednesday is the deadline for California’s recall effort targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom. According to the movement’s leaders, it has already garnered enough signatures to trigger a recall election.
Newsom has faced a great deal of criticism over his response to the pandemic. Once flying high in the polls, he is now facing a sharp drop. According to a University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies poll conducted in January, Newsom’s approval numbers dropped from 64 percent in September to 46 percent in January. Furthermore, only 31 percent believe Newsom is doing an excellent or good job handling the pandemic, down from 49 percent in September.
Fueling this discontent are a series of missteps, like the governor getting caught having dinner at the upscale restaurant French Laundry last November, flouting his own strict guidelines on wearing masks and social distancing. The guests, who were unmasked, included friends and a lobbyist, sending a clear message about who does and doesn’t get to play by the rules.
While it was a mistake, Newsom might have been able to recover from this gaffe if not for the state's slow vaccination response. In January, California ranked last in terms of the percentage of state shots used. Meanwhile teachers, administrators and unions blame the state’s slow school reopening plan on a lack of available vaccination shots.
Unfortunately, Newsom has reacted with rhetoric rather than leadership. Instead of talking about partisan power grabs, Newsom must stay focused on the pandemic. This might even require thinking about the (politically) unthinkable — not seeking re-election in 2022. At some point he has to ask what is best for his state’s millions of residents.
Newsom’s Democratic counterpart in New York is also facing tremendous scrutiny, and his response has been, if possible, worse. Right now, the American governor with the highest national profile, for all of the wrong reasons, is Gov. Andrew Cuomo. With federal, state and local investigations in the works, Cuomo has gone from being one of the most powerful governors in the country to the most damaged.
This week he will start negotiating the most important budget in the state’s history with the state’s assembly speaker and the state’s majority leader. The former has started impeachment hearings against him and the latter has called for his resignation after multiple women accused Cuomo of inappropriate workplace behavior (he has apologized but denies the most serious allegations) and his aide was caught on tape admitting the state had withheld data about the number of nursing home patients who died from Covid-19 (he denies a cover-up took place). Both state houses have veto-override majorities.
Last Friday, the majority of House Democrats from New York called for Cuomo’s resignation, along with Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. It is clear that his ability to govern effectively has been diminished, and he must resign.
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As one political star fades, another rises. That probably is how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sees it anyway. Coming off a very good showing at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, last month, DeSantis even seemed to be exploring a presidential bid.
Now he is under scrutiny for putting pop-up vaccination sites in wealthy communities, which have been linked to his political donors. DeSantis is another governor that has enacted policies contradicting the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health officials. Currently Florida is open for spring break, as if the 2020 spring surge never happened.
DeSantis may already be looking ahead to 2024, and the Republican base might not care all that much about science or equality, but many Floridians do. And this could lead to a very tough re-election race, not to mention a potential pandemic surge.
Perhaps the most egregious lapse in judgement is happening in Texas, however, where Gov. Greg Abbott has declared that the state open unmasked. Abbott claimed the state’s 5.7 million vaccination shots prove they no longer need to take serious precautions, an argument that ignores reality; as of early March, just under 7 percent of the state's population was fully vaccinated.
Even as the experts warn of a possible surge or plateau, Abbott said Texans have "mastered the daily habits to avoid getting Covid." As if, somehow, the fine people of Texas have alone figured out the key to avoiding microscopic droplets that can float in the air and are invisible to the naked eye.
Abbott’s Covid-19 recklessness comes on the heels of his dismal response to February’s crippling winter storm. It’s likely that March’s announcement is an incredibly ill-advised attempt to distract from this failure.
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Our country is on the cusp of making it to the other side of this pandemic. Trust in the federal government is starting to be restored. There will never be a more important period to focus on leadership. Will the governors of our four largest states get the hint?
