If Jacinda Ahern were POTUS.

First, let’s acknowledge that New Zealand is not the United States, a fact that makes Kiwis sigh with relief, I’m betting.

But each individual state could have behaved like New Zealand if we didn’t have a rogue party that was intent on making its base completely intractable pains in the asses.

Jacinda Ahern is the prime minister of New Zealand. I know NZ is a small country but from small places great leaders can sometimes emerge. Ahern is young, she’s unmarried, she and her partner have a child *out of wedlock*! {{get the evangelical ladies some smelling salts}}. She just happens to kick ass in every conceivable way from the day to day running of her country to handling a mass murder of Muslims with compassion, determination and immediate gun control. And now coronavirus.

New Zealand had a very strict lockdown. But it only lasted 4 weeks. Yep, 4 weeks of freezing everyone in place with one of the strictest isolation rules in the world. Then they opened up. Their new cases and fatality rate are extremely low. From what I can tell, New Zealand is still a Democratic country with freeance and liberdom. There aren’t furious right wing crazies with semi-automatic rifles showing up in government buildings demanding their god given right to infect themselves and others. Maybe that had something to do with the gun control laws.

In any case, the government paid businesses to stay closed and urged everyone to pull together and be patient. And it only took … 4 weeks.

Imagine if our “President” had set an example, wore a mask, threw the resources of the federal government at testing, worked with governors to keep businesses solvent and the populations calm, we might also have gotten through our lockdowns in 4 weeks and change.

None of these things happened here. This is only one of the many reasons why Trump and his ornery Republican allies have to go in November. Their lack of leadership and cooperation have cost people their livelihoods, living quarters and lives. When a country like New Zealand can do so well, it’s a mystery why each state of the Union wasn’t instructed to do likewise.

Actually, it’s not. Trump is no Jacinda Ahern. Damn, I wish she were running for President.

BTW, the author of that WaPo column, Clare Alexander, is in New Zealand on a work visa. She’s a writer and an editor. Really, New Zealand?? How is that possible? Does New Zealand have an actual shortage of writers and editors? Where can I apply for a visa??