On July 29, local time, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, announced a mandatory mask policy requiring people in the House of Representatives to wear masks. Earlier in the day, Representative Louis Gomert, a Republican of Texas, tested positive for the new crown virus. Gomert previously resolutely refused to wear a mask, and his diagnosis caused at least three colleagues to self-isolate.
Masks are not the only way to fight the epidemic, but they are simple and effective. Public health experts said that if all localities follow the guidelines for maintaining social distancing and wearing masks in public, the US epidemic may be brought under control. However, the superposition of the epidemic, partisan disputes and the background of the general election has made the issue of masks politicized and symbolized in the United States, becoming a "new symbol of partisan culture war."
The battle for masks reflects the chaos in American politics and society. The first estimate released by the US Department of Commerce on July 30 showed that due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the actual gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States fell 32.9% annually in the second quarter of this year, the largest decline since records began in 1947. At the same time, protests are still being held in many parts of the United States. The cumulative death toll from the epidemic in the United States has exceeded 150,000, and the number of deaths in a single day in some states has reached a record high. Why the power checks and balances and self-correction mechanisms that have always been regarded as the norm by the West have not played an effective role? The reporter interviewed experts on international issues.
The battle for masks once again shows "politics first, science aside"
As of July 31, US Eastern Time, the number of confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in the United States exceeded 4.5 million, and the death toll exceeded 150,000. There is little sign that this spread is slowing down. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, believes that in a series of errors in response to the U.S. epidemic, the failure to make the public wear masks in time "may be the biggest mistake the U.S. has made."
The US "Washington Post" reported that: "Wearing a mask is the simplest and most effective public health method to fight the new crown pneumonia. However, from the beginning, the United States has stumbled on the issue of masks."
In February of this year, the epidemic began to spread in the United States, but the US government and medical circles did not recommend that people wear masks. At the time, health officials mistakenly believed that as long as symptomatic patients were isolated, the epidemic could be controlled. At the end of March, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the United States was close to 100,000, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began to recommend that the public wear masks daily. However, the proposal was rejected by senior government officials. Since then, the US CDC and the White House staged a tug-of-war on the issue of whether to wear a mask. In early April, Trump publicly stated that although the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear masks, this is voluntary, so he will not follow suit.
US media revealed that Trump once told his assistants in private that wearing a mask would send a terrible message because he was working hard to fight the virus and restart the economy. He is also worried that the photo of wearing a mask will be used by political opponents to accuse him of shrinking from the disaster.
In the face of a severe epidemic, Howard Koch, the deputy health secretary during the Obama administration, publicly called for the United States to take concerted action on the issue of wearing masks. Before the vaccine is available, "masks are our best vaccine." However, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows made it clear that it is impossible for the federal government to issue a nationwide order to wear masks.
“The United States implements hierarchical governance at the federal, state, and local levels of government. Each state retains considerable autonomy. Public health affairs such as the new crown epidemic are internal affairs and are managed mainly by state and local governments. The federal system itself has formed a'bulk The United States’ anti-epidemic pattern. In addition, wearing or not wearing masks is labelled as partisan and “politicized”. On the issue of wearing masks, there are various regulations between the federal and state, between states, and even within a state. Conflict." said Wei Nanzhi, an associate researcher at the American Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In the United States, partisan differences have become an important factor in whether to wear masks. A "mask map" published by the "New York Times" shows that among Republicans, there are far more people who don't wear masks than those who often or always wear masks. A poll released by the Pew Research Center in the United States at the end of June also showed that more than 60% of Democrats and voters who tend to be Democrats believe that they should wear masks at all times when they may be close to others in public places; and among Republicans and voters who tend to be Republicans In China, less than 30% hold this view. U.S. Senator and Republican Lamar Alexander bluntly stated that, unfortunately, the simple and life-saving practice of wearing a mask has been politicized in the United States. It has become that if you support Trump, don’t wear a mask, and if you oppose him, you have to wear a mask. .
"Whether or not to wear a mask should be a purely public health issue. The core lies in whether it will help contain the epidemic and benefit public health. In the United States, it has been endowed with so many political and cultural connotations. In the opinion of the Democrats and the liberal media , Trump and the Republican Party’s attitude towards masks is an indifference to and depreciation of experts and professional skills. In the eyes of the Republican Party and the conservative camp, wearing a mask is an'overreaction' and an offense to personal freedom.' China Institute of International Studies Zhang Jiaolong, an assistant researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, concluded: “Politics is the priority and science is on the sidelines. Against the background of the superimposition of the epidemic and the election, the absurdity of American society is embarrassing.”
Since July, the number of new crown infections in the United States has repeatedly hit new highs. Some Republican officials have publicly supported wearing masks, and efforts to persuade Trump to wear masks have begun to heat up. On July 11, Trump publicly put on a mask during the epidemic for the first time. At the end of July, most states in the United States began to widely require people to wear masks, but there are still people who resist, and there is no lack of "anti-mask movement." The promotion of masks in the United States has lasted more than four months, and it is still "crazy".
Epidemic prevention is drawn by party, political polarization intensifies social division
The Republican and Democratic parties are fighting hard on the issue of whether to wear masks.
In mid-July, the Republican governor of Georgia in the United States filed a lawsuit against the Democratic mayor of Atlanta, the largest city in the state, in an attempt to prevent the mayor’s “mandatory mask wearing order”. Atlanta Mayor Botoms fought back in an interview with the media: "It is clear that the governor puts politics above the people."
"During the epidemic, the bipartisan struggle and the presidential election have caused controversies and conflicts between the federal government and state governments, between states, and within states on various issues such as isolation policies, whether to wear masks, and the procurement and deployment of anti-epidemic supplies. Not only has it failed to form an overall strategy for preventing and controlling the epidemic and restoring the economy, but the two parties are speaking out against specific target groups and supporting protests with different demands. This in turn made the protest worsen the epidemic and fell into the'anti-epidemic-protest -The vicious circle of economic recession." Wei Nanzhi concluded: "The continuous escalation of partisanship and political polarization has caused the antagonism between the two parties to dismantle each other from the past issue-oriented, and escalate into a political vicious battle that will turn against each other. The bottom-line fight produced the result of the "unprecedented decline in American social cohesion" that the American scholar Seth D. Kaplan lamented."
"The governor v. Mayor case also shows that the new features of American politics in which the judicial system is frequently involved in political struggles that emerged last year will continue in 2020." Wei Nanzhi pointed out that the design of the system of separation of powers in the United States requires judicial independence, but this This balance structure is being broken. This aspect is manifested in the judicialization of political struggles. The contradictions between the two parties that are difficult to compromise are increasingly inclined to resort to courts at all levels, hoping to achieve multiple goals such as attacking and countering the other party and expanding their own influence through judicial decisions; another On the other hand, it is manifested in the politicization of the judicial system. Trump has appointed 187 conservative judges in the past three years since he took office. In 2019 alone, there were as many as 102. The Supreme Court is dominated by conservatives. In recent years, the Republican Party can usually win The court supports. Anthony Markum, a researcher at the R Street Institute, an American think tank, believes that the politicization of the American judicial system is a waiver of political responsibility.
There are comments that the US epidemic prevention is drawn by party lines. American political scholar Alan Abramovitz also bluntly stated that the United States under fierce partisanship looks more like two countries dominated by the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.
Why did the two-party system in the United States become "incompatible"? Wei Nanzhi analyzed that the United States has long emphasized procedural justice and equality of opportunity, and downplayed substantial justice and equality of results. However, the deteriorating disparity between the rich and the poor and class divisions have produced demands for substantive justice and equality of results, and the existing democratic procedures cannot effectively respond to these political demands. "To a certain extent, the continuous polarization of the respective political positions of the two parties in the United States has promoted the overall political polarization of the United States and aggravated the social division in the United States. This political polarization is also tearing the basic consensus to ensure the effective operation of American party politics. , The political conflicts caused by them intensified."
Political distrust and political indifference have become common problems
The outbreak coincided with the US election year, and the two parties clearly linked the epidemic to the election situation. For example, Pelosi referred to the new crown virus as the "Trump virus" and denounced that "a lot of our suffering is caused by the Trump virus."
"In Western electoral politics, re-election is regarded as the primary goal of government officials. If elected officials think that their chances of re-election are adversely affected by something, they will find ways to blame it." Ran Ran, an associate professor at the School of International Relations, Renmin University of China, analyzes Say.
"Elections are regarded as the main way for Western democracies to correct themselves. In fact, the phenomenon of'electoral system failure' objectively exists." Wei Nanzhi said, taking the fight against the epidemic as an example, the political pressure of the two parties does not come from whether they are right or wrong. The prevention and control of the epidemic plays an active role, but how to use the epidemic to gain support from voters. Therefore, trying to avoid responsibilities, frequently "dumping the pot", and even using the epidemic as a tool to demonize opponents, are all in line with the practical needs of electoral democracy. This also shows once again that the elected government leaders may not really get rid of the private interests of individuals or political parties, not be controlled by interest groups, and serve the general interests of the people as expected by democratic political theory.
"Even if the'elected representatives' act in governance is not in the interests of voters, voters cannot directly hold them accountable. They can only look forward to the next vote to elect others. Under the gimmick of'procedural absorbing dissatisfaction', it is'in the public interest'. As a result, the standard of justice is no longer important." Wei Nanzhi said bluntly that American democracy is often equated with competitive elections between the two parties, that is, electoral democracy. However, the methods or procedures of "elected representatives" are effective, but they cannot prove the legitimacy of the "elected representatives" after being elected.
The new crown pneumonia epidemic is more than one hundred years after the 1918 pandemic, nature's "big test" on the political systems and social organization systems of various countries. The performance of the United States so far has been "failed." This situation caused the world to reflect.
"In fact, the reflection on the American political system did not arise because of the epidemic, but has already existed. For example, as early as six years ago, the American Social Science Research Council set up a "Democratic Anxiety" project team to focus on representative democracy. Whether it can respond to the increasingly pressing public interest major issues, and wrote a lot of articles reflecting on the American political system.” Wei Nanzhi said that many empirical studies have shown that the actual influence of political and economic oligarchs on policy makers is far Exceeding the middle class and the lower-level people, the responsiveness of political institutions to the interests of the elite is much higher than the responsiveness to the interests of ordinary people. In the United States, many citizens, especially those of the middle and low social strata, abstain from voting because they cannot personally feel what the "one person, one vote" election has to do with their own interests. Political distrust and political indifference have become common problems. The failure of the electoral system and the negligence of political elites can be seen everywhere. Even some intellectual elites are trapped in "anxiety about democracy" to varying degrees.
"The mainstream American democratic political thought believes that the consent of the people is the only source of power to win its legitimacy. However, the political practice in the United States is increasingly manifested in the separation of elite politics from the general public, and the separation of democratic procedures and social class. Disruption, de-globalization, and the dilemma of political involution, the “people’s consent” is increasingly being turned into a moment of voting. The American political system is neither capable of maximizing individualism and capital’s innate profit Reasonable restrictions on the short-sighted effect of “capital-politics-society” cannot solve the problems of political polarization, disparity between the rich and the poor, social tearing, and cultural conflict under the power imbalance of'capital-politics-society'.” Wei Nanzhi said: “Just like the American political scientist Robert Putnam described in the book "Our Children", the American dream of'anyone can succeed if they work hard' is fading. The American political system has profound changes in politics, economy, society and culture that the United States is experiencing The lack of willingness and ability to respond effectively will inevitably make the United States this "imaginary community" fall into a real crisis of losing its common beliefs and dreams." (Reporter Han Yadong)