The most profound and complete failure of presidential leadership in modern history . . .

sayeth Ezra Klein. He isn't the first to note that the Administration has no plan whatsoever to deal with the second greatest crisis in our history. The individual occupying the office of president does not care on whit for any human being, or for that matter any animal, vegetable, or entity other than himself. And he is too stupid, intellectually lazy, and unreflective even to do himself any good. As Klein correctly explains:

We are used to policy debates revolving around whether the administration has chosen the right or wrong plan. You could imagine that being the case here.

There are, at this point, a slew of reopening plans from think tanks and academics, economists and epidemiologists, liberals and conservatives. They differ in important, controversial ways. There are proposals that go all-in on mass testing. There are others that imagine a vast architecture of digital surveillance. Some rely on states, others emphasize the federal role. And within the plans, details worth debating abound: What level of risk is acceptable? How should recommendations vary between dense cities and rural areas? Who counts as an essential worker? How do we prevent mass unemployment? What is technologically possible?

 The Trump administration could have chosen any of these plans or produced its own. But it didn’t. The closest it has come is a set of guidelines for states to consult when reopening. President Trump, however, shows neither familiarity with, nor support for, his own guidelines. He routinely calls on states to reopen though they have not met the criteria his administration suggests. For instance, his series of tweets calling on right-wing protesters to “LIBERATE!” Michigan, Virginia, and Minnesota from stay-at-home orders contradicted his own administration’s guidance and created a distraction for state officials trying to manage a crisis.Americans don’t have a functional president, but we have someone playing a dysfunctional president on TV, and he’s keeping other leaders from successfully doing their jobs.

Here's the bind we're in. No, we can't continue on "lockdown" (as they say). The pain is far too great, and anyway people don't know what the  way out is supposed to be. They got out in Denmark, and South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, because they acted quickly and decisively and did what they needed to do: shut down forcefully to keep the prevalence low and use the time to develop a robust testing and contact tracing regime. The U.S. has largely wasted the past three months. Some governors have done what they can but the federal government has not only not provided any help, it has actively interfered. So now that states are easing restrictions unwisely and haphazardly, new cases will rebound and they'll have to pull back. That's just going to make matters worse.

But here's the greater mystery. Plutocrats control the Republican party, and presumably this abdication of duty is not in their long term interests. I turn the floor over to Steve M:

I understand that we're reopening much of America prematurely because our corporate overlords have contempt for their employees and their customers and just want revenue to start flowing again as quickly as possible. But why are they unable to grasp the obvious point that their customers are afraid to come back, and that they'll be even more afraid when, inevitably, the premature reopenings cause a spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths? In other words, why aren't the CEOs who have Donald Trump's ear telling him that, for his benefit and theirs (they really don't care about ours), he should be working harder to bend the curve and increase testing and tracing, because that's what it will take to give Americans the confidence to go out and consume?. . .

I've come to the conclusion that many American capitalists aren't seekers of pure profit. They often prefer control. In this case, they don't like being ordered to shut down by the government. They want to forcibly reverse the shutdown -- even though it's likely to mean more death and less business, and even though letting the lockdown run its course would make them more money in the long run. They just don't want to be told that they can't have their wishes immediately gratified.

Update: It's absolutely mind boggling how dense some people are. If you want to risk suffocating alone to eat at Applebee's salad bar* as far as I'm concerned you are welcome to apply for your Darwin award. However, the point is, if you become infected then you will infect other people. That is not your God-given right.

* David Brooks famously referred to the Applebee's salad bar in one of his tediously predictable columns about Real Americans™, which apparently don't include himself who lives in Manhattan and lunches at the Harvard Club. Applebee's doesn't have a salad bar.