Corona-GATE

Roy Cooper, Democratic Governor of North Carolina, has recently gained support due to his quick response to the COVID-19 crisis and his extension of restrictions to keep the state closed. In the NY Times , Trip Gabriel writes that “incumbents could benefit from newfound star power” in the upcoming election. North Carolina has historically been a red state and is characterized as having an “energized Trump base.” From my experience growing up in North Carolina, this is due to the large number of small rural counties who tend to lean conservative, whereas the bigger cities tend to hold more liberal views. This gubernatorial election is expected to be a competitive one, as Cooper must combat the conservative political landscape of North Carolina. However, Gabriel notes that “governors have emerged as political stars” during this time through their “[sobering] updates of new cases and hands-on guidance” that is displayed in daily news conferences. In The Performative Presidency , Jason...

Andrew Cuomo recently announced that he and Mike Bloomburg will be working together to create a “tracing army” to help isolate people with COVID-19. Essentially, the tracing program looks at people who tested positive for COVID-19, then ‘traces’ who that person was in contact with to get them into isolation so that the virus does not continue to spread to more people. The idea came from other countries who have implemented the program, such as Germany, Singapore, and South Korea, to be able to reopen their businesses and economy sooner. In comparison to President Trump’s efforts, Cuomo is seeking to find all who could possibly have contracted the virus and get them into isolation so that the spread of COVID-19 does not continue. Cuomo believes that by doing so death rates will go down and the states that use this method will be able to reopen their economies sooner rather than later.  Trump has been a lot more lenient in his policy of self-isolation. In his 30 Days to Stop the ...

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect millions of people globally, many people have begun to share their experiences in the workplace. Many doctors have begun to vlog or video record their shifts to demonstrate the intensity of their job as hundreds of patients come in each day seeking treatment. One of these doctors is Dr. Melanie Malloy at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City; in her segment of “From The Frontlines” she shows exactly how her day unfolds working in the field of emergency medicine. With her video, she provides us with a performance in which she lifts the veil that social distancing has created between us and the outside world. Her story is compelling, heartwrenching, and unquestionably authentic, showing the nation’s desperation for an end to the chaos. At the beginning of the video, Dr. Malloy explains that her day has already begun by taking care of her kids and having them prepared for school at home; she does not start the video at the ho...

It looks as if Joe Biden is beating Trump in the polls by doing almost nothing. More specifically, according to recent polling numbers, Biden has been winning in several key states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Florida, states that Trump painted red in the 2016 presidential election.  Losing these four states for Trump could perhaps lead to an assured win by Biden in November. Poll numbers also show that the majority of residents from the respective states “disapprove” of Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, the same poll numbers show that 57% of residents in Michigan believed that stay-at-home restrictions were “just right,” while 9% believed that it wasn’t strict enough.   All these poll numbers suggest that Biden’s prospects for election have improved since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, while Trump’s approval ratings have not.  This is curious to say in the slightest given that Biden has essentially been running an i...

On April 17, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York held his daily press conference update on the current COVID-19 pandemic. The press conference itself was set up to promote the social distancing objectives of the government. Reporters had about six feet of space between one another and Cuomo in the center of the NY state government panel that was in charge of the state’s Coronoavirus response. This set-up by Cuomo enables him to directly speak to his constituents about the pandemic and suggest new efforts that need to be made within the state and at the federal level. As shown in the Mast, The Performative Presidency, reading codes and narratives have to be seen within time and space to be meaningful to the audience. Cuomo has continually used social distancing practices at his daily press conferences to reiterate to the people within New York and around the United States that everyone needs to be practicing social distancing if the United States is to overcome this health pandemic....

According to the most recent Gallup poll, Trump’s approval rating is 43% (a fall from the 49% approval seen in March) whereas his disapproval rating is 54% (a jump from the previous rating of 45%). These results are indicating that people have not been happy with Trump’s performance in the last month, which is a big contrast from high approval at the beginning of his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is probably happening because Trump’s performances at press conferences have caused a lot of controversies, with people claiming that he clearly has no idea what he is doing with the current situation. If we analyze one of his most recent press conferences, for instance, we can observe the dynamics present in the atmosphere and what role he plays in sending a message (which functions as a script) to the audience. In a recent press conference, Trump’s claims that there were some states “without any problem” in terms of coronavirus cases caused an uproar in the media. Some m...

On April 16th, former vice president and apparent democratic candidate for president, Joe Biden and his wife, appeared in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Throughout the interview Biden creates a heavy contrast between his leadership style and that of Trump’s, demonstrating his awareness and sympathy to those affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. While doing so, Biden uses the democratic code to show his honesty and competence as a Democratic presidential candidate and the counterdemocratic code to create a discourse of repression in regards to Trump and his approach to dealing with COVID-19.  From the very beginning of the interview, Biden not only expresses his sympathy for the victims of the virus, but also works to create a bond with the viewers watching at home by emphasizing that he knows others close to him who are also suffering from this pandemic. Biden recounts stories of how he has “close friends” who are either suffering from the virus or are on the front lines...

Bernie Sanders, who recently dropped out of the 2020 Presidential race, gave a speech on March 12th in which he addressed the pandemic known as COVID-19. Sanders uses elements of cultural performance in his speech in order to assert authority as a legitimate leader and employs an apocalyptic narrative structure in order to highlight the necessity of his own political agenda. In The Performative Presidency, Jason Mast explains that “actors take on meanings in relation to other actors in the drama, and in relation to the settings, plots, and vagaries of everyday life that can be picked up by a video camera” (11). Sanders emphasizes his own legitimacy as a leader by criticizing President Trump’s response to the health crisis. He argues that “the current administration is largely incompetent, and its incompetence and recklessness has threatened the lives of many people” and declares that “President Trump is unable and unwilling to lead selflessly." Sanders codes Trump as a counterde...

Thea: Hi! My name is Thea, and I’m a sophomore at Kenyon. Afomia: Hello! My name is Afomia, and I’m a junior at Kenyon. Elliott: Hi! I’m Elliott, and I’m a senior at Kenyon. Gage: Hey! I’m Gage, and I’m a sophomore at Kenyon. Thea: We’re students in Professor Villegas’ Cultural Foundations of Politics course. Afomia: This sociological course is designed to investigate symbolic features of politics like “Real Americans,” “the left”, and “the right” and identify how they are embedded in culture. We are also going to explore these symbolic features and structures and their relationship with the several political events, like electoral competition, collective action, and even waging or ending wars. Thea: Specifically, we’ve been looking at tools such as performance and iconicity to find meaning from political events and phenomena. Elliott: Exactly, we are really trying to use the tools that we have worked with so far in this course to understand some of the most recent politi...