WASHINGTON
(AP) — For most Americans alive today, the idea of shared national
sacrifice is a collective abstraction, a memory handed down from a
grandparent or passed on through a book or movie.
Not
since World War II, when people carried ration books with stamps that
allowed them to purchase meat, sugar, butter, cooking oil and gasoline,
when buying cars, firewood and nylon was restricted, when factories
converted from making automobiles to making tanks, Jeeps and torpedos,
when men were drafted and women volunteered in the war effort, has the
entire nation been asked to sacrifice for a greater good.
The
civil rights era, Vietnam, the Gulf wars, 9/11 and the financial crisis
all involved suffering, even death, but no call for universal
sacrifice. President George W. Bush encouraged people to buy things
after the terrorist attacks to help the economy — “patriots at the
mall,” some called it — before the full war effort was underway. People
lost jobs and homes in the financial crisis, but there was no summons
for community response.
Now,
with the coronavirus, it’s as though a natural disaster has taken place
in multiple places at once. Millions will likely lose their jobs.
Businesses will shutter. Schools have closed. Thousands will die.
Leaders are ordering citizens into isolation to stop the virus’ march.
Suddenly,
in the course of a few weeks, John F. Kennedy’s “ask what you can do
for your country” injunction has come to life. Will Americans step up?
“This is a new moment,” said Jon Meacham, a historian and author of “The Soul of America.”
“Prolonged
sacrifice isn’t something we’ve been asked to do, really, since World
War II,” Meacham said. “There was a kind of perpetual vigilance in the
Cold War — what President Kennedy called ‘the long twilight struggle’ —
but living with the fear of nuclear war is quite abstract compared to
living with the fear of a virus and of a possible economic depression.”
The
second world war involved a common enemy and common purpose, with clear
sides drawn across the globe. While President Donald Trump has at times
tried to summon that feeling about attacking the coronavirus, he has
abruptly changed course, suggesting Monday that restrictions he has
sought on American life may be as short-lived as his slogan about “15
days to slow the spread,” even as others are warning that most of the
country is about to be hit by a crush of new cases.
In
Congress, some talk of coming together while others excoriate their
partisan opposites. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) laid the early blame for lack of congressional action entirely
at the feet of Democrats.
“A
request to do anything becomes a point of attack, and we are always 10
steps back from where we should be on big legislative agreements,” said
Julian Zelizer, a professor of history at Princeton. “So intense
polarization in a moment of crisis — with a president who is not
interested in time-tested forms of governance and the job of uniting —
make this much more difficult.”
That
has not been universal. Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), moved swiftly to
shut down most activity in his state and he implored Ohioans to help.
“We
have not faced an enemy like we are facing today in 102 years,” DeWine
said recently. “You have to go back to the 1918 influenza epidemic. We
are certainly at war. ... In the time of war, we must make sacrifices,
and I thank all of our Ohio citizens for what they are doing and what
they aren’t doing. You are making a huge difference, and this difference
will save lives.”
As
a nation, Americans are accustomed to seeing swaths of the country
destroyed by hurricanes, floods, wildfires and blizzards. But there is
then a season of rebuilding and renewal. The coronavirus, with its rapid
spread, is giving Americans a public-health Katrina that knows few
borders or boundaries, even though some parts of the country are
suffering far more than others.
To
date, for many, the sacrifices have been mere inconveniences. No
restaurants or movie theaters. Maybe the need to buy exercise equipment
because the gym has closed. Or to leave the cardboard box from Amazon
outside for 24 hours to make sure the virus doesn’t somehow enter the
home.
A week of
being told to work from home can resemble a working vacation. A week of
not being able to work at all is frustrating but, potentially,
eventually reversible.
But when a week bleeds into a month, or longer, how will we react?
“We
used to tax in times of crisis. Now we don’t,” Zelizer said. “We asked
people to ration in times of crisis. Now we don’t. We asked people to
serve in times of crisis. Now we don’t. So this is a sea change. The
thing is, Americans might not have a choice.”
For
many, the choices are personal and painful. Rep. Abigail Spanberger
(D-Va.) cannot see her parents or her in-laws for the foreseeable future
because she may have been exposed to the virus. But she is also seeing
the impact of the virus in many other ways that are far more harmful.
“I
think we are at the beginning stages of people understanding what the
sacrifice is,” Spanberger said. “People with loved ones in nursing homes
are told they can’t go visit their loved ones. That brings it home. For
people who have kids, trying to explain why they can’t go to school,
can’t have playdates, can’t see friends, can’t see family members.
“It
is this element of everyone needs to disrupt their lives so that other
people won’t die,” she said. “It’s different than eating less meat
because of war or working in a factory because a husband is overseas.
But you also can’t engage with the community, so it makes it harder. You
can’t lean on your social circle, church, or school. All of those
things are taken from us trying to keep people safe.”
With
people being asked to sacrifice their jobs, their children’s education,
their ability to commune with family and friends, Spanberger said, “the
depth of empathy that that should be available and the strength of
concerns over these decisions needs to be unparalleled and we do not see
that, at least not from the administration.”
What
the nation’s leaders do or don’t do will shape the course of the
pandemic and its lethality. But it will be Americans’ willingness to
sacrifice that may well matter more.
“In
the end, this presents a great and compelling test of our national
sense of ourselves as exceptional, generous and resilient,” Meacham
said. “Perhaps we are all of those things. One thing’s for sure: We’re
about to find out.”
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