“It’s a personal choice. If you want to stay home, stay home. If you want to go out, you can go out. I’m not in the older population. If I was to get it now, I’ve got a 90 percent chance of getting cured. Also, I don’t know anybody who’s got it.”
Georgia man going through different shirts on display while shopping maskless in a reopened clothes store
I view most memes with disdain, a prominent symptom of the lazy shorthand that addles social media political discourse, the slothful confirmation of packaged sound bites we now use to display our tribal loyalties. Yet and still, every now and again one comes across the feed that grabs you with a powerful pull. The best I have seen lately is a cartoon brandishing a number of tombstones, each with its own epitaph. One says “finally got to the salon, my nails look great.” Another declares “my final bowling score was 150.” Still another boasts of “marched for freedom with my AR-15”. You get the point. But there are others in the mix. Ones that say “essential worker,” and “ordered to work,” and “critical care nurse.” The overarching title of the meme? “We’re all in this together.” Indeed.
Anyone who used to disdain a proclivity toward elitism, that is, the idea one is a more constructive part of American society solely due to efforts at obtaining a bit of accurate news and information to foster critical thought, need no longer be too anguished. This is a country fully divided. And sadly, ruinously, the defining chasm is one side’s obsession with securing their own routines from those determined to cause them inconvenience. They operate within the cocoon of grievance and resentment relentless propaganda has created, and their minds are made up, at the very least, enough to resist the death of 100K of fellow citizens within two months.
Roger Ailes of Fox was no fool. He understood pandering to recliner-based seniors and unreformed bigots would only go so far. Sure, amplifying fears of black urban thugs and invading hordes of Muslims and Mexicans was a solid foundation for a customer base without concern for facts, but recruiting younger and relatively more clear-minded users was essential to growth and preparing for the inevitable day Fox no longer enjoyed a monopoly on the “conservative” market. To that end, bringing libertarian sensibilities into the fold made plenty of sense, what with their general opposition to government intrusion and natural bent toward militancy. This was post-9/11 America and the leading libertarian voice on the scene was Ron Paul, a Texas Congressman and Presidential candidate who reflected in his positions a number of the hard choices the ideology demands.
Most prominent of those choices Paul was glad to make, and unapologetic in defending, was opposition to the wars W Bush was intent on leading America into. This was inconvenient for Ailes since Fox had already branded anyone not voicing support for full engagement at the appropriate decibel a “lib” traitor. Such incompatibility was dramatically illustrated at the 2008 GOP convention in St Paul, Minnesota when Sean Hannity literally ran for his life from a mob of Paul supporters prepared to tar and feather for his criticism of Paul’s disengagement purity. Forget wanting these militants as loyal viewers, the more pressing concern became making certain they didn’t become enemies; an emergency was at hand! The Fox narrative had to accommodate, or at least distract from, libertarian global retrenchment pronto, otherwise a natural market share could be squandered.
Libertarianism is a discipline first and foremost. Adherents are required to pursue intellectual consistency; it is unforgiving in this regard. A libertarian can’t pick and choose which tenets he is comfortable with because then he is no longer libertarian, merely a hypocrite. It is patently absurd to declare you are entitled to own an assault rifle free from government oversight and then hold a woman’s bedroom behavior and reproductive decisions are fair game for the most invasive monitoring. If government can’t be trusted regarding something as benign as speed limits, how can one abide granting it permission to execute people? No taxes? Well, the biggest slice of the pie always goes to the military… slash away? It’s clear from the outset that libertarianism has no space for religious dogma, or a fearful citizenry looking first to government to shield them from harm both at home and abroad. After all, why do I need more cops when old Betty is locked and loaded on my night stand?
Of course Fox News never was much interested in intellectual honesty or constructive political distinctions, and cherry picking libertarian sensibilities it could enmesh into its web of white grievance for rebranding was the only thing that ever interested Ailes. Focus on the callow self-indulgence and ignore the hard choices, Simply bend it to Bill O’Reilly’s whim. A recipe for the grass roots nihilism that informed the Tea Party and devolved into MAGA and Trumpism. Today we live its success at that endeavor.
What’s now on display as vast tracts of the nation reopen for business, despite Coronavirus infection numbers at odds with CDC and Pence Task Force guidance, is the fruits of Ailes and Fox/AM’s distortion labor. It’s millions convinced their liberty is measured only by the convenience at their disposal. Such manic self-absorption has been on display in the White House and Trump rallies for four years now, there should be no surprise it’s front and center during a crisis. This is what the shit river looks like when the chips are down and collective guideposts are required. “Don’t tread on me, I need to shop. Wear a mask? Remember what we decided about political correctness? We won’t stand for this… where are my fatigues?!”
It’s doubtful there is a one of us not fully cognizant of the destructive economic consequences shutting down America has imposed. A strategy for rescuing the economy was this President’s primary task from the moment the need to shut it down became non-debatable. But the equation always contained two interdependent components, primary amongst them the health and safety of US citizens, which can only be sustained if the healthcare system is not overwhelmed. It never was as much about people getting sick, that was accepted as inevitable, it was always about managing the numbers so adequate medical care could be provided, instilling rigorous protocols to prevent surges that dwarfed resources. Chaos at hospitals in initial hotspots like Washington and New York graphically proved such concerns are not hypotheticals. Yet and still, civic education at the teat of Fox/AM’s narcissistic impulses does not provide for comprehensive viewpoints, only the visceral siren song of “me me me.” I’ve been in my room too long, you must let me out to play!
Going into the third month of this crisis, the economic damage gets worse by the week. A projected $3.7 trillion deficit for 2020, added to $20 trillion plus of accumulated debt, makes development of a strategy to reopen the economy, while managing the spread of Covid-19, perhaps as important a mission as any American President has been confronted with. It’s just our bad luck the one we have can barely muster the industry to tie the laces of his wingtips. He’s taken a pass, preferring to simply bully governors to open their states, come what may. The only strategies he is interested in are those to purge anyone willing to accurately document the carnage surely to result.
Trump made clear yesterday at, get ready, a BUFFET lunch with GOP Senators that he wants no more of “his” money spent on freeloaders using a pandemic to stay home. Basically, he wants to solidify the binary choice between risking illness or eviction for millions, the better to pressure Blue State holdouts. By July, we will either be reopened while ignoring what we shut everything down for to begin with – read at least a few thousand deaths per day – or savagely driven back to square one by multiple Covid-19 hotspots and a full-blown national health catastrophe even this amoral GOP won’t be allowed to ignore. What will the economy look like then? There is nothing in between. Call it the new libertarianism! BC