We Need an S.O.S. (Save Our Society) Presidential Campaign, NOW!

It has long been obvious that the United States would not survive a second Trump term, but in recent weeks it has become less and less clear that the U.S. will survive to the end of the first Trump term. The Covid-19 pandemic has confronted us with a situation in which presidential leadership is indispensable, at a moment when the nihilistic cynicism, corruption, and utter fecklessness of the current President makes presidential leadership virtually impossible. Turning the tide on the pandemic will require leadership that fosters mutual trust and cooperation, but Donald Trump is only able to helm a politics of hatred, suspicion, and communal division.

As long as the status quo persists, the pandemic will continue to spin out of control, deepening the economic crisis that comes with it. Successive rounds of government stimulus will be necessary to keep the nation minimally afloat. Eventually that well will run dry, and the economy will collapse in 1929-fashion. Since the Trump administration's fiscal profligacy had already put us into a dangerously leveraged position before the pandemic began, the chances that the government will be able to continue to maintain its good faith and credit during an uncontrolled public health disaster through next January are slim.

We have to find some way of pressuring Donald Trump into using the powers at his disposal to ameliorate the health crisis, to resign, or to at least give the reins over to someone capable of leading us out of the current impasse (a new #PandemicTsar). Trump only responds to threats to his own personal fortunes. There is thus really only one individual in the country who has leverage that can move our catastrophically destructive president to action: Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Up until now the Biden camp has persisted in treating this campaign as a conventional electoral contest: one in which the ultimate object should be understood as winning office. But winning office will be of little practical impact if there is not genuinely a Republic left to lead. As a matter of political strategy and civic duty, Joe Biden should begin to conduct his campaign not only as a bid to win office, but as a concerted effort to preserve the nation from disaster.

What would this entail? At basis, it would involve an open recognition of the naked realities of our situation. Though Donald Trump legitimately holds the office of president, he does not in any way fulfill its responsibilities or respect any of its principles. Since he refuses to behave as a president, the Biden campaign should cease giving him any of the ordinary courtesies or considerations that would routinely apply to an incumbent president. Trump cannot flout decorum at every turn and then claim that fairness or the dignity of his office demand he be given his due.

For example: as Thomas Friedman noted, Biden is so far ahead in the polls now that he can comfortably afford to refuse to engage in a debate. Trump is desperate to debate, as these provide some of the few moments in which the trajectory of the campaign might be turned. Ordinarily tradition would demand at least one debate: it would be unseemly to hold an election without any. But tradition has been so thoroughly defecated upon by this president (words chosen judiciously) that it would be completely absurd for anyone to claim it should be respected on his behalf. Biden should demand that the price of having a debate will be the release of Trump's recent tax returns: one for each debate (up to a maximum of four or five, say). Whatever paltry demurrals Trump offers in the face of such extortion can be safely brushed aside. A "president" who cannot show the public his tax returns is not worth laughing at, much less arguing with.

Other tactics might include seeking the endorsement and active campaign participation of past presidents, especially George W. Bush. Ordinarily it would be unthinkable for an ex-president to electioneer against his successor, but since Trump is not genuinely successor to any mantle of leadership, his tenure does not need to be respected in that regard. At least, unless and until he begins to fulfill the most basic duties of his office.

All of these provocations should be keyed to a single unifying message: ACT NOW. Trump's failure to control the pandemic should be kept harshly spotlighted, all of the levers of electoral pressure should be brought to bear to push him into leading (not bloody likely), quitting (only slightly less improbable, but one may hope), or at least getting out of the way (probably our best and perhaps our only shot). If Biden were to re-tool his campaign this way, aside from bringing the Trump nightmare to an end at the ballot box, he might do something even more extraordinary: save the Republic before the first vote for him is even cast.