Who and What Decides? Politicians in a Squeeze

Honestly, I am glad I am not a politician these days. Politicians have to make decisions, quickly, and may be leaning on information that may or may not be relevant, fully true, good - or it may be just accurate. No noe truly knows the future, well, apart from God.

I do not follow the news too closely, but I hear some reactions to news, and I pick up some from different media sources. The hard thing is that we cannot fully trust the news to want to spread information, since they also have an ideological, perhaps also political, agenda.

I do not live in the US any longer, but I sense the decadence of an opposition, people in the game who seem more interested in one person losing a reelection than for the nation to pull together and reestablish the economy. They will have an election where this issue is decided, but to use, I would say, abuse, the situation with a halted economy in many states, to play political games, that is simply sinful. I understand that the current president has a persona which is abrasive and annoying to many, but it must be possible to put aside the personal grudges for the better good for people.

In the US they bought into the scientific prognoses that many, perhaps millions of people would die, unless drastic measure were taken. Did all simply buy into this science? Were other voices ignored?
In Norway the same drastic measures were taken, and abruptly. We have started opening up again, and much will resume,  but many smaller and some larger businesses may not be able to open again. I think the scenario in Italy was the one which scared the leaders to take severe measures. I know it must have been really difficult to make any such dramatic move; it is like war time and martial law.

What we knew, initially, is that this is a new virus, contagious, and particularly harmful for older and weaker people with other health issues. I jokingly said to my friends and family: send us ( 60+) to some nice resort in the mountains;) There we will camp out until the rest of the population has developed a herd immunity.  I should have boldly stated my  idea. It would have saved many livelihoods, and the tourist business would have had a great season...

I don't know what to think about the US these days - I realise each state has their government, and the federal government has limited power. Still, the elected body of leaders should be able to cooperate  and pull together in times like this. Simply to gripe about status quo, or to come with general criticism of how the crisis is handled, is useless without  a plan of action.

It is still a land of law, and the Constitution prevails. If the leaders in the various states make decisions which the people find unbearable, the people have the right to challenge such government.
The unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness may be at stake.

It is easy to criticise. I, for one, am happy I do not have to bear the burden of responsibility for political decisions about how to meet the virus. I think it has been an over-reaction but at the same time am I unwilling to lift the restrictions on my life. Rational though meets irrational caution.

In the end, I know my life rests in God's creative hands. He is in charge. There is the real comfort.