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As if a deadly pandemic, one that’s claimed more than half a million lives in the U.S. as of today, wasn’t enough, Texans continue to face dangerous conditions brought on by a mix of snow and political neglect.
The state’s power grid, once pitched as an emblem of self-reliance and the free market, collapsed in the face of emergency. Now it’s come to symbolize something much darker.
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This is what happens when politicians fixate on the culture war instead of governing. Adam Serwer writes from San Antonio: “The elevation of this symbolic politics over competence has had a devastating effect on actual governance in Texas.”
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Texas failed big in three different ways. It was “a lack of planning, a reliance on just-in-time logistics, and a self-defeating trust in the profit motive,” Robinson Meyer reports.
One question, answered: Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, said it could soon be “open season” on vaccines. What will that look like?