When lockdown came, before hunkering at home, Americans rushed out.

They stripped supermarket shells of hand sanitizer, tin food, and lural.

They also bought guns, lots of them.

The FBI made 3.7 million background checks in March,

the most in a single month since checks became mandatory in 1998.

You don't tool up if you're optimistic the government has things under control.

Not for the first time, a fog of gloom shrouds the city on a hill.

With 185 days to go, this is checks and balance.

I'm John Prado, the economist's US editor, and this is a podcast about the 2020 elections.

Each week we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth.

Today, our warnings of American decline justified.

The pandemic has been grim for fans of US leadership in the world.

The country that defeated totalitarianism and put a man on the moon has been hit hardest by coronavirus.

China is sending medical supplies to American states, while the president brains storms bizarre cures on live TV.

Is America seeding global leadership to China?

Maybe.

What's certain is that predicting the imminent decline of the Republic and preparing for it is a long-standing American tradition.

In this episode, we'll find out which president invented modern declineism

and here from someone who spent years preparing for societal breakdown,

only for those plans to go horribly wrong.

As ever, I'm joined by Charlotte Howard, the economist's New York bureau chief,

and by George Fasman, the Washington correspondent, John Fasman Happy Birthday.

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