If Washington's usual playbook works this time, it will be more by accident than design.
The social and political response to major catastrophes often proceeds in stages. Stage 1 is denial. Thankfully, this stage is largely over for the coronavirus crisis. Not counting a few poltroons and conspiracy theorists, nobody is saying it’s all hype or no big deal.
For many Democrats, the roaring economy of eight weeks ago was the perfect time to push for canceling student debt, establishing a $15-per-hour minimum wage, creating “Medicare for all,” etc. A runaway pandemic and the start of a massive shutdown of the economy only made it more obvious that all these “priors” were absolutely fundamental and necessary.
Just because these policies are priors, it doesn’t mean they are necessarily ill-suited to the moment. For instance, canceling some student debt makes sense now more than before, and a major rethinking of our economic entanglement with China seems acutely overdue. But this has more to do with serendipity than critical thinking.
Sometimes, we get stuck in Stage 2. Shortly after 9/11, Sen. Charles E. Schumer bowed to Democratic form when he wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post arguing that “the era of a shrinking Federal government is over.” President George W. Bush, who ran for president arguing for a “humble” foreign policy, reverted to the conservative foreign policy establishment’s preference for regime change and nation-building, at least in part because it was the only fleshed-out program available.
This is not to say that both sides don’t try their best to deal with emergencies. But just as the stockpile of masks and ventilators is not adequate to the sudden demand, the same holds for the storehouse of policies we could put into effect right now. Or to be more fair to the
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