Missing from political shows? Strategy to stop virus

The view from K Street this month is seen through the distorting prism of the national political conventions. Although they were presented in an often-engaging format never before used, they remain unchanged at their core.

The challenging party presents a grim view of the past four years and a different vision for the future along with the torchbearers, young and old, who will carry out the plans. The party in power celebrates its achievements, promises more of the same, both of people and policies, and denigrates the opposition candidates and their prescriptions.

This formula has the effect of reducing even the most serious policy proposals ― economic recovery, climate change, social justice ― to slogans. The very structure of the event is contradictory to extended discussions about the issues vexing the nation and pleading for solutions.

Perhaps because political conventions must have "optimism" as their core structural principle ― a vision of a better future is, after all, what every political party runs on ― the view here is there was an unusual common reluctance to seriously dwell on the biggest "elephant in the room" since the Great Depression: the COVID-19 pandemic and its corrosive effect on our society, top to bottom, left to right.

No one wants to hear about death, sickness, and deprivation hour after hour, day after day, but the current response to the virus is the political issue of the moment. It is the measure of President Donald Trump and his administration. It is the test of his party and its legislative success or failure.