Не по лжи

[tijd]

Митт Ромни оказался единственным республиканским сенатором, который нашел в себе мужество проголосовать за отставку Трампа. Политтехнолог Стюарт Стивенс, руководитель избирательный кампании Ромни-2012, идет дальше и кается в тупиковом пути, на который, при его участии, свернула республиканская партия. Война с образованием и пренебрежение наукой и эспертами в правительстве аукнулись некомпетентностью и человеческими жертвами во время нынешнего фиаско с коронавирусом.

"The Republican Party has gone from admiring William F. Buckley Jr., an Ivy League intellectual, to viewing higher education as a left-wing conspiracy to indoctrinate the young. In retribution, we started defunding education. Never mind that Republican leaders are among the most highly educated on the planet; it’s just that they now feel compelled to embrace ignorance as a cost of doing business. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, as an example, denounces “coastal elites” while holding degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School and having served as a Supreme Court clerk.
The GOP’s relationship with science has resembled some kind of Frankenstein experiment: Let’s see what happens when we play with the chemistry set! Conservatives have spent years trying to cut funds for basic science and research, lamenting government seed money for nearly every budding technology and then hoping for the best. In the weeks ahead, it’s not some fiery, anti-Washington populist with an XM radio gig who is going to save folks’ lives; it is more likely to be someone who has been studying this stuff for decades, almost certainly at some point with federal help or outright patronage.
Finally, there is the populist GOP distrust and dislike of the other, the foreign. Yes, it is annoying that the Chinese didn’t come clean and explain everything to us from the start. But it appears that a Swiss company is helping to jump-start us in testing; and it is a German company that American officials reportedly tried to lure to the United States recently to help develop a vaccine for the virus. We talk about how we need to be independent even as we do all kinds of things that prove we aren’t.
What is happening now is the inevitable result of a party that embraced fear, weaponized xenophobia and regarded facts as dangerous, left-wing landmines that must be avoided."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/18/elections-have-consequences-slow-response-virus-is-one-them/

Political strategist Stuart Stevens,who led Romney down the tubes in what should have been an easy victory,has terrible political instincts!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2015

Новая книжка Стивенса называется "It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump".

"I can’t keep lying to myself to ward off the depressing reality that I had been lying to myself for decades. There is nothing strange or unexpected about Donald Trump. He is the logical conclusion of what the Republican Party became over the last fifty or so years, a natural product of the seeds of race, self-deception, and anger that became the essence of the Republican Party. Trump isn’t an aberration of the Republican Party; he is the Republican Party in a purified form."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/opinion/trump-republicans-racism.html



Традиционно во время предвыборной кампании кандидаты в президенты отвечают на вопросы журнала "Scientific American". В вопросах 2016 года затрагивался вопрос готовности к эпидемиям и пандемиям.

Hillary Clinton (D): A 2015 study found that spending on public health had fallen more than nine percent since 2008. And uncertain long-term budgets leave our public health agencies dependent on emergency appropriations—meaning that when Congress fails to step up, communities are left without the resources they need, vaccines languish in development, and more people get sick.
That is why as President, I will create a Public Health Rapid Response Fund, with consistent, year-to-year budgets, to better enable the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state and local public health departments, hospital systems, and other federal agencies to quickly and aggressively respond to major public health crises and pandemics. I will also ensure that our government has strong leadership and is organized to better support and work with people on the ground facing public health challenges. <...>
When dealing with the outbreak of diseases, we must be sure to act with caution, and rely on science to inform our decisions around trade, travel, and treatment. We are privileged to live in a country that individuals around the world aspire to visit and even immigrate to. It is within our national interest to think beyond our borders, and through our leadership, do everything we can to foster peace, health, and security around the world. In the United States, we need to break the cycle in which our own public health system is beholden to emergency appropriations for specific epidemics. We can do this by creating a dedicated Rapid Response Fund to help shore up our defenses, accelerate development of vaccines and new treatments, and respond more effectively to crises. We will also create a comprehensive global health strategy that moves beyond the disease-by-disease emergency model and seeks to build a robust, resilient global health system capable of quickly responding to and ending pandemics.
Donald Trump (R): The implication of the question is that one must provide more resources to research and public health enterprises to make sure we stay ahead of potential health risks. In a time of limited resources, one must ensure that the nation is getting the greatest bang for the buck. We cannot simply throw money at these institutions and assume that the nation will be well served. What we ought to focus on is assessing where we need to be as a nation and then applying resources to those areas where we need the most work. Our efforts to support research and public health initiatives will have to be balanced with other demands for scarce resources. Working with Congress—the people’s representatives—my administration will work to establish national priorities and then we will work to make sure that adequate resources are assigned to achieve our goals.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-do-the-presidential-candidates-know-about-science/

Помимо обещания "ensure that the nation is getting the greatest bang for the buck", Трамп порадовал также глубокомысленным суждением "Science is science and facts are facts".



Из выступлений Обамы в NIH:

"There may and likely will come a time in which we have both an airborne disease that is deadly. And in order for us to deal with that effectively, we have to put in place an infrastructure -- not just here at home, but globally -- that allows us to see it quickly, isolate it quickly, respond to it quickly. And it also requires us to continue the same path of basic research that is being done here at NIH that Nancy is a great example of. So that if and when a new strain of flu, like the Spanish flu, crops up five years from now or a decade from now, we’ve made the investment and we’re further along to be able to catch it. It is a smart investment for us to make. It’s not just insurance; it is knowing that down the road we’re going to continue to have problems like this -- particularly in a globalized world where you move from one side of the world to the other in a day."
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/02/remarks-president-research-potential-ebola-vaccines

"And in the 21st century, we cannot built moats around our countries. There are no drawbridges to be pulled up. We shouldn’t try. What we should do is instead make sure everybody has basic health systems -- from hospitals to disease detectives to better laboratory networks -- (applause) -- all of which allows us to get early warnings against outbreaks of diseases. This is not charity. The investments we make overseas are in our self-interest -- this is not charity; we do this because the world is interconnected -- in the same way that the investments we make in NIH are not a nice-to-do, they are a must-do. We don’t appreciate basic science and all these folks in lab coats until there’s a real problem and we say, well, do we have a cure for that, or can we fix it? And if we haven't made those investments, if we’ve neglected them, then they won’t be there when we need them."
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/11/remarks-president-americas-leadership-ebola-fight



Выступление Трампа в NIH 3 марта 2020:

"But we’ve made tremendous progress. I know you’re dealing with other nations to help them out because they really — they got hit, some of them very badly. And we’re talking to them also. And we’re making decisions as to whether or not we’re allowed to travel — they’re allowed to travel. They’ve been — we’ve been pretty severe on those restrictions, but I guess we did the right thing by being severe.
NIH is the home of — I mean, I see so many different factors, and it’s true — the greatest doctors. I’ve heard that for so long. I heard that from my uncle, Dr. John Trump. He — big fan of what you’ve done and how it started. And it’s really been an incredible situation."
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-roundtable-briefing-coronavirus-bethesda-md/

В феврале 2020 администрация Трампа в четвертый раз предложила урезать финансирование NIH.

President Donald Trump on Monday called for $38 billion in fiscal 2021 funding for the National Institutes of Health, representing an approximately 8 percent decrease from the its current $41.46 billion budget.
The request comes as part of the White House's $4.89 trillion federal budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year.
The budget plan includes cuts to every NIH institute including the National Cancer Institute, which would receive $5.69 billion down from $6.25 billion; the National Human Genome Research Institute, which would receive $550.1 million versus $606.3 million; and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which would receive $5.45 billion compared with $5.89 billion in FY2020.
The request marks the fourth time President Trump has sought to cut spending to the NIH. Increasing the agency's funding has continued to garner wide bipartisan support in Congress, however, leading to annual increases during his presidency.
https://www.genomeweb.com/policy-legislation/president-trump-calls-8-percent-cut-nih-budget

I give you my word as a Biden: When I'm president, I will lead with science, listen to the experts and heed their advice, and always tell you the truth. https://t.co/tIpjW1ch0L

— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) March 19, 2020