Happiness is a warm gun

AP:

When it comes to states’ rights, President Donald Trump is all over the map.

To battle the coronavirus, he’s told states they’re largely on their own. But when it comes to stamping out protests in cities led by Democrats, Trump is sending in federal troops and agents — even when local leaders are begging him to butt out.

“After seeing Trump in the White House for three and a half years, anyone expecting to find classical ideological consistency is bound to be mistaken,” said Andrew J. Polsky, a political science professor at Hunter College. “All of this is done for partisan political purposes with an eye toward the election.”

This is true. Trump does whatever maximizes his authority while avoiding responsibility. 

But the other through-line in this is a characteristic Trump shares with a lot of conservatives: At his core, he believes the answer to most issues is being -- or, perhaps more precisely, being seen -- as tough.

The virus is very difficult to be "tough" against. It has no emotional response to anything. It just does what it does. That hasn't stopped the president from trying to out-tough it, by calling himself a "wartime president" and refusing to wear a mask until he wore one. Even the ramped-up tensions with China in the pandemic's wake can probably be seen not just as scapegoating -- though it is certainly that -- but as a function of the need to be seen "cracking down" on something in response to the crisis.

With protesters, though, it's pretty easy to be tough. Just lob tear gas and rubber bullets at them.

The problem, though, is that even where toughness produces something like results -- a change in the situation, kinetic displays -- it doesn't always, or even often, produce good results. Doesn't matter. Trump and his allies aren't concerned with effectiveness. It's showing the iron fist that matters. Federalism doesn't really matter to the question.