
NY Times: American Catastrophe Through German Eyes - adamsea
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/opinion/trump-germany.html
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eqvinox
As a German of Jewish descent, I'd add two observations:

First, I'm much more worried about people like Steve Bannon, Bill Barr and
Mitch McConnell — that is, people who have the necessary capacity combined
with an utter absence of morals. Trump alone is too stupid to be truly
dangerous, but he is enabled by these people.

And, second, the US Covid-19 handling is very effectively destroying the
remaining trust that (at least for people in my bubbles) existed in US
leadership. Before Covid, there already was stunning surprise at how badly the
US could go wrong and how little the checks and balances seemed to work. But
it was a "dear god these 4 years need to end quick" reaction. Now it's obvious
that even in the face of danger threatening the US' own population, the
political apparatus is not capable of pulling together and delivering a
rational response (working around broken elements like Trump.) It's spotty at
best with some governors and mayors. That's not enough and this is _permanent_
erosion of EU trust in the US. If the US cannot protect its own people, it
cannot be relied upon as e.g. a military partner. The "they'll get their act
together if push comes to shove" we had before is gone now.

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adamsea
Agreed. Well, I'd say both. Trump is dangerous, but we're lucky he's not more
competent. And the politicians who enable him are terrible.

With luck we will begin repairing what we can once a non-incompetent/non-
hateful/non-authoritarian President is elected in November.

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anoncake
> their particular passion for freedom, democracy and openness

Our what?

