You bring up a number of good observations regarding Dr. Fauci becoming the whipping boy for the cumulative frustrations of the country.
Inside the Beltway everyone, particularly elected officials and political appointees, are all for responsibility and accountability until its their political hide or party that is on the line. At that point they pull out their proverbial cans of WD-40 and spray it all over themselves so hopefully nothing sticks. As pointed out in the post, in this case the leaders and party in power during the first part of COVID successfully hosed themselves down and slid out on the banana peel of citizen distraction.
What a lot of people have forgotten is the nation was looking for leadership in the crisis, and the president was not a confidence builder. Fauci was the best communicator the Trump administration had and the media climbed all over him as a result. Career public servants, even if they are in senior leadership positions, are generally not prepared to be thrust into a national spotlight like that, particularly under a condition of extreme uncertainty where the world's scientists are trying to figure out COVID in real time with poor data while people are dying in large numbers and their political leadership is panicked. It would take a very strong and internally disciplined person to not be effected by being put into that brutal situation. The man is human and I'll extend him the grace of assuming that he was trying to do the best job he could in a tough, high visibility environment even if in 20/20 hindsight there were mistakes made to include some in the ego department.
The hearing objective should be to learn from the mistakes and apply those to future pandemic responses, not to play "who shot John" as it seems Senator Paul is primarily interested in.
I think under another president, Dr. Fauci would have done fine as a medical spokesman. A mature chief executive would have given clear parameters for keeping the message on point.
The country would have rallied around such a president rather than the doctor, and Fauci would not have been put in the position of becoming a celebrity. If W. Bush or Obama were president in 2020 Fauci's strengths would have remained and his weaknesses would have been minimized to almost being irrelevant. It was a vacuum of executive leadership and traditional charisma that created the conditions for the public information failure.
The aftermath still greatly effected the Schools and students yet don't hear much about it.
You bring up a number of good observations regarding Dr. Fauci becoming the whipping boy for the cumulative frustrations of the country.
Inside the Beltway everyone, particularly elected officials and political appointees, are all for responsibility and accountability until its their political hide or party that is on the line. At that point they pull out their proverbial cans of WD-40 and spray it all over themselves so hopefully nothing sticks. As pointed out in the post, in this case the leaders and party in power during the first part of COVID successfully hosed themselves down and slid out on the banana peel of citizen distraction.
What a lot of people have forgotten is the nation was looking for leadership in the crisis, and the president was not a confidence builder. Fauci was the best communicator the Trump administration had and the media climbed all over him as a result. Career public servants, even if they are in senior leadership positions, are generally not prepared to be thrust into a national spotlight like that, particularly under a condition of extreme uncertainty where the world's scientists are trying to figure out COVID in real time with poor data while people are dying in large numbers and their political leadership is panicked. It would take a very strong and internally disciplined person to not be effected by being put into that brutal situation. The man is human and I'll extend him the grace of assuming that he was trying to do the best job he could in a tough, high visibility environment even if in 20/20 hindsight there were mistakes made to include some in the ego department.
The hearing objective should be to learn from the mistakes and apply those to future pandemic responses, not to play "who shot John" as it seems Senator Paul is primarily interested in.
I think under another president, Dr. Fauci would have done fine as a medical spokesman. A mature chief executive would have given clear parameters for keeping the message on point.
The country would have rallied around such a president rather than the doctor, and Fauci would not have been put in the position of becoming a celebrity. If W. Bush or Obama were president in 2020 Fauci's strengths would have remained and his weaknesses would have been minimized to almost being irrelevant. It was a vacuum of executive leadership and traditional charisma that created the conditions for the public information failure.