Diary of a Plague Year

It’s to no one’s benefit to politicize Covid-response policy: admiring aspects of Sweden’s approach doesn’t make you a fascist ghoul, nor does thinking hydroxychloroquine is worth the risk — especially early in treatment — make you a Trump supporter. Somehow, all pragmatism belongs to the right; to balance, adapt, ameliorate — everything other than total lockdown — is judged by conventional liberals as amoral, idiotic, and despotic. Democrats have become the party of institutions — regardless of what and who those institutions are (FBI, WHO) — and, as a result, Democrats will defend institutions regardless of the…