Would Trump have won without COVID?

 I haven't seen tons of these allegations but I certainly have seen some. And I understand; no one wants to see their party or their choice for an elected office lose. But here is the problem; elected officials aren't merely in place to protect the people during periods of relative calm and stability. In fact, it is arguably far more important that they govern in an effort to shield the people from more challenging times and to lead them through such times should something like this arise in spite of those efforts.

So, do I think Trump would have won with COVID? Based on how close the race was and how divisive Trump was on Coronavirus it does stand very much to reason that he likely would have won without this.

It isn't that it appears as though it would have impacted the stance of many. It appeared as though there were very few undecided voters going into the election. However it likely served to mobilize those who would have already voted against him and perhaps shifted a few votes in some states with narrower wins. But, in the grand scheme of things, Biden didn't really need the narrowest of victories. So, we can likely just attribute it to a greater number of people getting out and voting.

As I said before though... that is a very misguided way of looking at the situation. Many Presidents have been lucky to have not had to go through such an ordeal. And in that respect I can understand calling Donald Trump "unlucky".

But, this is exactly the sort of challenge which the leader of a nation needs to be able to face if they are to protect the people of that country. And, a lot of Trump's early "wins" undid things done by prior administrations which actually would have helped. The so called Obama-care for instance. It wouldn't have stopped the virus. However, not gutting the program would have left many Americans in a better position facing this pandemic. 

Put another way, at least one other President was trying to prepare the American people for a health care crisis. 

Now, Trump's plans wasn't exactly divisive among Republicans. So, it is quite fair to say that he was well within his rights and even acting as expected of him. How he acted after the fact is another story entirely.

I also cannot say that Trump is without his merits in this pandemic. While I seriously doubt his motives on the matter, Operation Warp Speed will very likely have played a factor in the vaccine timelines for many vaccines and while delayed and perhaps not well targeted, the stimulus checks was another well played move for the American people.

Beyond that though, the US is basically acting like Alberta, but on a national level with the exception that even Jason Kenney realized that there is eventually a time to act and did so. And Alberta's case count has come down since enacting stricter lock downs, while the US without proper guidance continues to sky rocket.