New_York_Magazine_-_March_16_2020

march 16–29, 2020 | new york 7

inside: Bernie Sanders memorabilia / A reality star escapes upstate / Podcasting the 2020 election

PHOTOGRAPH:

DAVID

WILLIAMS

Empires:

Da vid Wallace-Wells

America Is Broken

The government has

abdicated its most

basic responsibility in the

fa ce of a pandemic.

what we are seeing right now is the collapse of civic authority

and public trust at what is only the beginning of a protracted crisis.

In the face of an onrushing pandemic, the United States exhibited,

for months, a near-total evacuation of responsibility and political

leadership—a sociopathic disinterest in performing the basic func-

tion of government, which is to protect its citizens.

Things will get worse from here. According to a survey of epide-

miologists released on March 11, the coronavirus outbreak prob-

ably won’t peak before May. That doesn’t mean it will be over by

May, of course, but that it will be getting worse and worse and

worse over the next two months, and for much of that time, pre-

sumably, exponentially worse. And so the suspension of the NBA

season and Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson’s announcement that they

are sick with covid-19 will seem, in relatively short order, like quite

small potatoes. And for all of that time, the country’s response will

be commanded and controlled by Donald Trump.

Photo-illustration by Joe Darrow

TRANSMITTED

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0620INT_Column_1_lay [Print]_36888223.indd 7 3/13/20 8:19 PM

march16–29, 2020 | newyork 7

inside: Bernie Sanders memorabilia / A reality star escapes upstate / Podcasting the 2020 election

PHOTOGRAPH:

DAVID

WILLIAMS

Empires:

Da vidWallace-Wells

America Is Broken

The government has

abdicatedits most

basicresponsibilityin the

fa ceof a pandemic.

what we are seeing right now is the collapse of civic authority

and public trust at what is only the beginning of a protracted crisis.

In the face of an onrushing pandemic, the United States exhibited,

for months, a near-total evacuation of responsibility and political

leadership—a sociopathic disinterest in performing the basic func-

tion of government, which is to protect its citizens.

Things will get worse from here. According to a survey of epide-

miologists released on March 11, the coronavirus outbreak prob-

ably won’t peak before May. That doesn’t mean it will be over by

May, of course, but that it will be getting worse and worse and

worse over the next two months, and for much of that time, pre-

sumably, exponentially worse. And so the suspension of the NBA

season and Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson’s announcement that they

are sick with covid-19 will seem, in relatively short order, like quite

small potatoes. And for all of that time, the country’s response will

be commanded and controlled by Donald Trump.

Photo-illustration by Joe Darrow