Donald Trump let the cat out of the bag when explaining why he would not invoke the Defense Production Act to organize the production and distribution of test kits and PPEs in fighting the Virus, saying “We're a country not based on nationalizing our business.”
The freed cat was the closely held and unreported secret that he is not actively fighting the virus but keeping roads clear for private capital to flourish under plague conditions. He is following the ideas behind Conservative neo-liberalism-- an ideology, instead of common-sense and science.
It used to be that neoliberalism and Reaganomics just wreaked havoc on the poor, weak and old. Now its fangs and claws are bared and it is killing indiscriminately. The conditions which dismantled our government’s response ability began on January 20, 1981 at Ronald Reagan’s Inauguration Address when the new President said “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."
Since that time Republicans have consistently under-funded and under-staffed Federal agencies. They have appointed people to leadership positions who hate government, insuring that government would never be well-regarded. They have disguised the issue by equating (in the public mind) critical regulations to protect workers, food-safety, the air and water every creature needs, with long lines in the post-office and lazy bureaucrats. They hate government because it is the only entity which can restrain Corporations. [DrDiva, a reader took appropriate exception to this last sentence by pointing out: ... Republicans like government just fine as long as it’s putting more money in their pockets. They don’t like it when it makes life easier — or at least more bearable — for the Little People (that is, the people who don’t contribute to Republicans’ re-election campaigns.)
Those chickens have now come home to roost. The de-funding of the social safety net, which Reagan referred to as “taking the toys away from the kindergartners” has created the condition for our Third World Response this crisis. Our once proud nation is sucking hind-tit behind China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong-Kong all of whom have done superior jobs fighting Corona than the US.
In order to keep the paths open for private capital to drain profits from this tragedy, the President is closing off every public option of aid. Neither the military or private enterprise with surplus critically needed tools have any idea of where to send them, because we have no leadership. This is a crime against humanity and the mouth-breather governors trying to remain in lock-step with the Dumpster lest he tweet badly about them are killing their poor citizens to insure their hold on power.
The possibility that Trump is not simply stupid and inept, but might be following a rational set of principles and guidance to achieve these heartless results, has not to my knowledge, been examined on any of the major media.Why? They insist on treating Trump like an oaf, shaking their heads in disbelief, and never appear to suspect there might be an organizing principle behind his behavior (or the advice he receives from his wealthy cronies.) We don’t need an indignant or ironic media. We need media that will look beyond the accepted parameters of argument—the permissible territory for examination, according to the three giant media corporations in the United States. Behind the surface diversity, they represent one corporate center-right perspective. The commentators we regard as “liberal” are actually centrists who never stray far from the permissible boundaries demanded by their paymasters. The people of the United States never hear (or heard) brilliant alternative voices like Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Malcolm X and Michael Parenti and a host of critics of unregulated capitalism and neoliberalism. That censorship (and there is no other word for it) has impoverished us as a people, diminished the scope of permissible thinking and delivered us to Stupidville.
The Government is a large part of the problem, but so is our lack of discipline and our adolescent notion of freedom which we translate to ourselves as, “I can do whatever I want.” Certainly the Governor of Florida should not have allowed hundreds of thousands of teenagers to hook up and party during spring break. But what about the teenagers. When my peers were that age they were fighting for civil rights, against the war in Vietnam, for the women’s movement for the environment. Who absolved these kids from the need to be vigilant, question authority and practice self-control? When the partying was over and they piled onto planes and went back to college or home, how many grandparents and parents, how many unsuspecting citizens fell ill because of their responsibility?
We need a national dialogue about what freedom means. In a world in which everything is interdependent our ideas of freedom and liberty have not been nuanced and responsive to that understanding. Part of the spread of the virus, and part of the reason Trump was elected is because people feel “I’m an American and freedom means I can do whatever I want.”
There’s nothing to be done now except try to play catch up with the sick and dying. It’s a National tragedy which may well put us under as a Nation unless we dedicate some of our enforced solitude to thinking deeply about questions like: What is my responsibility and relationship to others? Must I consider constraining my impulses and desires so that I don’t deny the survival and health of others?
Irony will not save us. Mimicking the hip cool comedy of the late-night talk-show hosts will not save us. What will save us is knowledge, kindness, compassion, discipline and action. COME NOVEMBER—-if we don’t vote every single Republican out of office for malfeasance, dereliction of duty and breaking of their oaths to protect and defend, we deserve what we get.