By Donald Kirk
WASHINGTON ― In an epic U.S. election year, the coronavirus crisis competes with presidential politics for top billing in the news.
It's as though the powers-that-be in the national media can't decide what concerns viewers, listeners and readers more, the course of a disease with the potential to kill millions or a bitter campaign that reveals deep divisions splitting American society. The contest for the Democratic Party nomination for president in next November's election comes down to one basic question: who's capable of ejecting Donald Trump from the White House.
Sure, Bernie Sanders might have fine ideas, free education and free medical care, great, but practically speaking he would not have a chance of accomplishing either goal even if by some fluke he got elected. Joe Biden, who served eight years as vice president under Barack Obama, is more moderate, meaning realistic, in my view, and has a much better chance of unseating Trump.
The drama of presidential politics, though, has to share the spotlight with fears of the coronavirus. Events that I had planned to attend during a month in the nation's capital are getting cancelled, postponed or staged on line as "webinars" ― a form of interaction I find really unappealing. Universities are subjecting their students to the same treatment, and athletic teams are postponing or cancelling games, promising to set new dates when the disease blows over.
It's not quite right to compare the coronavirus to the Black Death suffered by millions of people, and that killed one third the population of Europe, in the 14th century. The vast majority of those diagnosed with the virus survive, but the fear is the disease will get worse before it gets better, leading to another virulent form of the virus before scientists have time to come up with the vaccine needed to keep it from engulfing humanity.
The U.S. presidential campaign is hardly immune from the panic. Both Sanders and Biden had to cancel rallies before the latest round of state primaries that are a prelude to the convention that nominates a presidential candidate. The entire campaign is going to suffer from cancellations and postponement of events that are critical to making choices.
Nor is President Donald Trump above the fray. His presidency, his ability to get reelected this year, is likely to ride on how he deals with the virus. Although he did say the disease was not all that dangerous, he has come to realize that now is the time to show his ability to lead the nation. He made a start by presenting a bill to congress that calls for nearly $10 billion worth of aid to stop the illness just as SARS and MERS were killed off before they too had a chance to threaten the whole human race.
The rush to expunge coronavirus from the human race is so all-important that it's easy to forget other stuff that might seem at least as compelling. Korea is a great example. In all the talk about coronavirus, no one says a word about Korea other than to note how many have suffered from the disease in South Korea and how many are likely to have it in North Korea. As for the historic standoff between the two Koreas, that goes unmentioned except when Kim Jong-un orders another missile test.
No doubt the need to get noticed is one major reason why Kim loves to press the button on those missiles. Interestingly, when he does so, he's seen not wearing a mask, standing before soldiers all wearing black masks. Going mask-less is all part of the act, a show to demonstrate he's not afraid of the illness, that he's strong enough to resist it while mere mortals have to wear masks to survive.
Interestingly, hardly anyone wears face masks in the U.S. So far the only people I've seen wearing masks here are Korean Air employees at the Washington Dulles International Airport. It's not hard to find masks on sale at pharmacies, but they have yet to catch on as in both Koreas, in Japan, Hong Kong and China, where President Xi Jinping was photographed wearing a mask during a visit to Wuhan.
Americans, though, are no less concerned, as seen in wild fluctuations of the fickle stock market. Trump loves to take credit for the market's rise during his presidency, but the coronavirus may plague his bid for reelection. The spread of the disease dominates the news here to the exclusion of the fantasies and promises of Trump and his foes.
Donald Kirk (www.donaldkirk.com) has been reporting from Washington as well as Seoul for years.
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It's as though the powers-that-be in the national media can't decide what concerns viewers, listeners and readers more, the course of a disease with the potential to kill millions or a bitter campaign that reveals deep divisions splitting American society. The contest for the Democratic Party nomination for president in next November's election comes down to one basic question: who's capable of ejecting Donald Trump from the White House.
Sure, Bernie Sanders might have fine ideas, free education and free medical care, great, but practically speaking he would not have a chance of accomplishing either goal even if by some fluke he got elected. Joe Biden, who served eight years as vice president under Barack Obama, is more moderate, meaning realistic, in my view, and has a much better chance of unseating Trump.
The drama of presidential politics, though, has to share the spotlight with fears of the coronavirus. Events that I had planned to attend during a month in the nation's capital are getting cancelled, postponed or staged on line as "webinars" ― a form of interaction I find really unappealing. Universities are subjecting their students to the same treatment, and athletic teams are postponing or cancelling games, promising to set new dates when the disease blows over.
It's not quite right to compare the coronavirus to the Black Death suffered by millions of people, and that killed one third the population of Europe, in the 14th century. The vast majority of those diagnosed with the virus survive, but the fear is the disease will get worse before it gets better, leading to another virulent form of the virus before scientists have time to come up with the vaccine needed to keep it from engulfing humanity.
The U.S. presidential campaign is hardly immune from the panic. Both Sanders and Biden had to cancel rallies before the latest round of state primaries that are a prelude to the convention that nominates a presidential candidate. The entire campaign is going to suffer from cancellations and postponement of events that are critical to making choices.
Nor is President Donald Trump above the fray. His presidency, his ability to get reelected this year, is likely to ride on how he deals with the virus. Although he did say the disease was not all that dangerous, he has come to realize that now is the time to show his ability to lead the nation. He made a start by presenting a bill to congress that calls for nearly $10 billion worth of aid to stop the illness just as SARS and MERS were killed off before they too had a chance to threaten the whole human race.
The rush to expunge coronavirus from the human race is so all-important that it's easy to forget other stuff that might seem at least as compelling. Korea is a great example. In all the talk about coronavirus, no one says a word about Korea other than to note how many have suffered from the disease in South Korea and how many are likely to have it in North Korea. As for the historic standoff between the two Koreas, that goes unmentioned except when Kim Jong-un orders another missile test.
No doubt the need to get noticed is one major reason why Kim loves to press the button on those missiles. Interestingly, when he does so, he's seen not wearing a mask, standing before soldiers all wearing black masks. Going mask-less is all part of the act, a show to demonstrate he's not afraid of the illness, that he's strong enough to resist it while mere mortals have to wear masks to survive.
Interestingly, hardly anyone wears face masks in the U.S. So far the only people I've seen wearing masks here are Korean Air employees at the Washington Dulles International Airport. It's not hard to find masks on sale at pharmacies, but they have yet to catch on as in both Koreas, in Japan, Hong Kong and China, where President Xi Jinping was photographed wearing a mask during a visit to Wuhan.
Americans, though, are no less concerned, as seen in wild fluctuations of the fickle stock market. Trump loves to take credit for the market's rise during his presidency, but the coronavirus may plague his bid for reelection. The spread of the disease dominates the news here to the exclusion of the fantasies and promises of Trump and his foes.
Donald Kirk (www.donaldkirk.com) has been reporting from Washington as well as Seoul for years.
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