Author: Robert Reich

Trump and many Republicans insist that the decisions whether to wear a mask, go to a bar or gym, or work or attend school during a pandemic should be personal. Government should play no role. Yet they also insist that what a woman does with her own body or whether same-sex couples can marry should be decided by government. It is a tortured, topsy-turvy view of what is public and what is private. Yet it is remarkably prevalent as the pandemic resurges and as the Senate considers Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court. By contrast, Joe Biden has wisely...

Sympathy is the ability to put yourself in the place of another and understand someone else’s feelings by identifying with them. With empathy, you put yourself in another’s shoes, often feeling things more deeply than if you just felt sympathy. For about a minute today I found myself feeling sorry for Donald Trump. The poor man is now “battling” COVID-19, the pugilistic verb is showing up all over the news. He is in the hospital. He is out of shape. He is 74 years old. His chief of staff reportedly says his symptoms are “very concerning.” Joe Biden is...

No other nation has endured as much death from COVID-19 nor nearly as a high a death rate as has the United States. With 4.25% of the world population, America has the tragic distinction of accounting for about 30% of pandemic deaths so far. And it is the only advanced nation where the death rate is still climbing. Three thousand deaths per day are anticipated by June 1. No other nation has loosened lockdowns and other social-distancing measures while deaths are increasing, as the US is now doing. No other advanced nation was as unprepared for the pandemic as...

Donald Trump has been getting nervous. Internal polls show him losing in November unless the economy comes roaring back. So what is Trump’s reelection strategy? Ignore the warnings of public health experts and reopen the economy at all costs. Here is his lethal 4-part plan: Step 1: Remove income support, so people have no choice but to return to work. Trump’s Labor Department has decided that furloughed employees “must accept” an employer’s offer to return to work and therefore forfeit unemployment benefits, regardless of the risk of returning to work before it is safe. Forcing people to choose between contracting...