“Adversity does not build character. It reveals it.”

In the face of a public health crisis, a rational President would turn to medical experts. Donald Trump turned to Mike Pence.

A competent administration would work with Congress to accelerate testing, prevention and treatment; boost unemployment insurance and sick leave; and expand food aid, especially for children at risk of losing school meals. This White House wants to build a wall.

This is a dangerous time in America, not only because of a virus we must contain but also because of the racism and xenophobia we have not. Those strains become even more virulent when politicians stoke our fears, substituting bigotry for reason and fiction for fact.

Among the results: increasing attacks on Asian Americans. Such discrimination reflects our nation’s worst impulses, at a moment when we need to summon our best.

It did not take a crisis to reveal Donald Trump’s character. But it will take women and men of courage to resist his demagoguery, to mitigate the damage his policies have caused, and to lead us forward.

Andrew Romanoff