Some stories in today’s news animate us in inverse proportion to the degree they affect us directly.
Democratic House managers, led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), opened the presentation of their case for impeachment yesterday. They are accusing President Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
For many Americans, the Senate trial frustrates us in large part because we can do so little about the cultural rancor it illustrates. It is our partisan polarization writ large, with the two sides in conflict while one hundred senators sit passively and the nation watches from afar.
If the trial ends as expected, neither side will get what it wants. The president’s supporters will be angry at what they perceive to be an unjust prosecution, while his opponents will be angry at what they perceive to be an unjust outcome. Each will blame the other. And no one seems to know what to do to change the partisan impasse in which the country finds itself.
“An epidemiologist’s nightmare”
Other stories in the news animate us in direct proportion to the way they affect us directly.
The death toll from the China coronavirus is now at seventeen. After emerging in a seafood and livestock market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the virus has now spread across China and into the US.
Last night, Chinese authorities began work to quarantine Wuhan, sealing off its highways, public transportation, airport, train station, and long-haul bus hubs. The city is home to eleven million people. It would be the largest city in America (New York City’s population is estimated at 8.3 million).
In addition to the local threat, the Lunar New Year holiday in China is bringing hundreds of millions of travelers across the country and the world. According to the New York Times, this mass migration is “an epidemiologist’s nightmare.”
The virus is frightening because it holds the potential to affect us all. So far,
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