The potential lasting impact of Bloomberg was underlined
by his promise, when he hired his huge presidential campaign staff, that they
would all keep their jobs through November, whether or not he stayed in the
race. And that is why it is such big
political news that he has broken
that promise, laying
off staff in many places, notably Texas.
To see how stupidly self-destructive this move is, compare Americans for Prosperity,
the largest of the Koch lobbying organizations.
In 2016 it had a staff of twelve hundred,
more than three times the staff of the Republican National Committee, with directors
in 34 states. (I don’t have more recent
data.) It routinely hires Republican
legislative and campaign operatives, who tend eventually to move back to
Republican posts, where they are likely to further Koch agendas. Thus the Koch network is increasingly and
pervasively intertwined with the Republican Party. Koch money has been used to finance primary
challenges to Republican officeholders who fail to support positions that the
party’s own voters reject: reduction or privatization of Social Security and
Medicare, massive tax cuts for the rich, elimination of public sector
collective bargaining rights, climate change denial. The consequence is a growing Republican
unanimity in favor of those positions. Americans
for Prosperity consistently focuses
on “promoting tax cuts, blocking and eliminating business regulations, opposing
the landmark health-reform law passed in 2010, pushing for reductions in
funding of (and, where possible, the privatization of) public education and
social welfare programs, and opposing state-level environmental initiatives and
any from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”
Bloomberg could have created a comparable, countervailing
organization. In warfare, one often
copies the adversary’s most successful methods.
Democrats before Bloomberg didn’t have the opportunity to do that, but
he made it possible. Now he has
nonchalantly thrown that opportunity away.
Some have suggested
that he is likely
to remain a major player in American politics.
In order to do that, though, he needs to do what Koch has done, and
build up a staff of experienced political operatives. Who will ever agree to work for him after
this?
An obvious recovery step would be, of course, to keep his
promises by rehiring all those people who have been bitterly complaining to the
press, with horror stories such as giving up one’s health insurance to join his
organization. (Can he really not afford
to do that?) But the coronavirus creates
another major opportunity for someone like him with basically unlimited
funds. (He is even richer than Koch.)
One of the biggest failures of the Trump administration
in dealing with coronavirus – and this is an extremely competitive category – is
its aggressive
promotion of false information about the danger. Trump and his partisan media are putting Americans
in mortal danger. It might be the worst
single thing he has done as president (another extremely competitive category).
If Bloomberg spent anything like what he expended on “Mike
will get it done” ads, he could saturate the airwaves and the internet with the
truthful information about the danger, and appropriate preventive steps, that
you won’t hear from Trump. And while he’s
at it he could also broadcast truthful information about the administration’s
shameful incompetence in preparing for the epidemic. That would make him a major player again, it
would seriously damage Trump, and it would save lives. What is he waiting for?