Our psychotic discourse notwithstanding, the American political landscape is wall to wall normal people. We can't give up on normal people, or we'll lose for good. But maybe more importantly: normal people trust the federal government on an instinctual, not an intellectual level. It's the great gift and curse of post-war liberalism - they created institutions that appeared so trustworthy for so long that normal people take their proper function for granted. I think what that means practically speaking is that normal people will understand and accept something as undeniably true as "The President is a giant liar" but not really assimilate that information into a pattern of action because every moment of normal people's lives in contemporary liberalism has been built on believing the government just won't let them die. So put aside Trump supporters for a moment and think of the people who blithely assume that of course the federal government has their interest and safety at heart. Some of those people believed the President because believing the President is what Americans are trained to do.

Some of those people got sick and died. And I think they were very reachable and that knowing this would have helped.

I could be wrong, but we'll never know because the decision was made for us.