I don't think the "China is trying to kill us" attack is going to land outside Cult 45. Within the bathysphere of Fox News, it will echo around, but the election will not be won or lost by screeching to the choir. In the end, I think they will try and sell the idea that the US government did the best it possibly could, and no one could have done any better. Sure, it's tough, but whaddya gonna do?
The reason this could work better is because Americans are woefully ignorant of anything that happens beyond our borders. I think it would surprise many if not most Americans to realize that there are skyscrapers and internet on the continent of Africa. Any appeal to "We did the best we could" would appeal to this ignorance.
Of course, other countries have done better. Much better. OK, sure, the Czech Republic or Germany...rich countries. But Vietnam and Jordan have managed to kick Covid-19's butt without being wealthy countries. Some of this is simple trust in the government to look out for citizen's best interests. That simply doesn't exist for two reasons. Teanderthals have been weaned on anti-statist propaganda, and their "armed protests" in state capitals are the latest expression of that. It's not a long walk from taking up threatening positions in a government building to blowing up the Murrah building. The other is that non-Teanderthals don't trust Trump. Cuomo is...not great. But the hunger for any moral leadership is so great, that he's become a national leader simply by being human on TV.
The ability to defeat Covid-19 exists. It absolutely exists. Other countries have demonstrated how. But it requires a coordinated, competent response from the national government. Right now, the national government could fuck up a one car parade.
This - all of this - is a direct consequence of Republican anti-governmental rhetoric and practice since 1980. We have hollowed out the ability of the state to function in any crisis that doesn't involve bombing someone. Now we are discovering what the cost of that is.
UPDATE: Matthew Yglesias has a nice rundown of how our current "plan" is pretty messed up.
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