Covid-19 outbreak may put Trumpism's tenets to test
By Sid Schwab / Herald columnist
This coronavirus is becoming a great teacher, exposing the falsehood of Republican shibboleths handed down through the decades, starting with Ronald Reagan, and still believed. For example, their senators first-attempt bailout package was trickle-down at its worst, unregulated gifting of the wealthy, crumbs for the needy. Democrats managed to make it somewhat better.
Equally important, the virus is confirming the vulnerabilities of human nature.
Regarding the first, its possible, seeing the lack of preparedness and initial governmental inaction, the Republican party will finally regain its sanity. Till then, its easy to show how modern Republican philosophy has brought us here. Writing from the inside, a few lifelong conservatives have done just that. Heres an excellent example, presented to edify Trumpists: tinyurl.com/fail2see.
The linked Washington Post article, written by a Republican, spells out the roots of their current national leadership failures. If were to handle things better next time around, todays Republican leaders must retire their disregard for science, expertise, education, international cooperation, and good government. Then, improbably, they might even apply it to the more existentially devastating and economically challenging threat of climate change.
Unlikely. Even now, they cling.
Which brings us to the other viral unmasking: the blindness of half of humanity. With eons of evolution behind it, that may never change. Something fundamental separates humans into two very different world-views: for simplicity, call them liberal and Trumpic. Responses to the corona crisis make the distinction visible from blocks away. People maintaining separation in lines: liberal. People ignoring it: Trumpic. The latter is the equivalent of idiots in pickup trucks coal-rolling people in electric cars.
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