Geoffrey MillerVerified account

An honest US federal government would say all of the following (thread, 1/N): 1) We messed up about as badly as any government can mess up when confronting this crisis; 2) We should have planned much better for pandemics in general, and we utterly failed you in that duty;

3) We should have followed the Covid-19 threat much more closely, much earlier, but we were preoccupied with petty partisan squabbles & PR; 4) The emergency measures we've taken violate the US Constitution, violate many of your rights, and violate the Oaths of Office we took;

5) We have no real idea how to balance protecting public health versus protecting the economy; it's a heartbreaking trade-off that we're not equipped to handle; 6) We really don't have the policy tools necessary to handle global pandemics, or pandemic-induced global recessions;

7) Our existing governance systems aren't actually equipped to handle the most likely & severe global catastrophic risks; 8) Citizens have a right to expect governments to help protect them against such risks, and if we can't, something is seriously wrong;

9) Please bear with us while we do the best we can given the constraints we face, under these horrible circumstances that our own obliviousness, partisanship, & failures of imagination have imposed on your lives;

10) As a nation, we should probably rethink many of our governance systems from the ground up, after we get through the worst of this crisis;

11) In the November election this year, we'll offer a 'Vote of No Confidence' in the Federal Gov't as a whole; if the majority of citizens express no confidence, we'll organize a Constitutional Convention next year, scrap the existing government, and develop a new government.

12) Meanwhile, we know we don't deserve your respect, your compliance, or your tax money, but if we don't get your ongoing support, things will get even worse very quickly