The Road Not Taken

    

        Cartoons may be silly, but often they host talented writers who can really turn a phrase.  Seeing the sudden and alarming uptick in Covid cases in Michigan brought back a memory from the early 2000s.  As Bender from Futurama speaks to a massive, galaxy-spanning entity on the morality of his recent destruction of an entire civilization living on his backside, the entity consoles him.  Concerned that he never knew how to effectively play god, the entity urged a “light touch”, saying “when you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.”
        The morality and inherent good-ness of humanity aside, the line reminds me of the principles of governing.  It is often a thankless job and a favorite punching bag of the conservative right and apathetic left alike.  Yet the very nature of essentially social maintenance is designed to prevent things from happening.
        The pandemic offers a rare glimpse into both the effectiveness of government action, and the consequences of inaction.  It is exceedingly easy to complain about normal government action because there is almost no evidence to inform the effectiveness of inaction.  Former President Trump began parroting a conservative talking point that the “cure cannot be worse than the disease” as an argument against government action.  While this was a transparent blame-shifting and populist dog whistle, it did highlight the usual action of opining on what could have been had the government taken the opposite road.
        But the pandemic is different.
        We have a patchwork of rules and regulations on each state, in addition to a dramatic example of little federal action and massive action.  California was the first state to “shutdown” out of an abundance of caution when it came to a deadly pandemic and transmission rates.  While chastised on the right, the action eventually spread to the rest of the states (no pun intended).  Transmission and infection rates put in context, i.e. adjusting for overall population and population density, states that imposed more strict methods of containment have resulted in far better numbers, less infections, less death, and less economic impact.
        The choices are on even greater display in Florida, Texas, and Michigan.  Each of these states, to the chagrin of medical experts, dropped all measures on masks, indoor activities, and social distancing.  Low and behold, their infection and hospitalization rates have skyrocketed in the past month.  The three west coast states, while they have relaxed their rules in small ways, still kept most of their measures in place. In each state, their infection rates have remained steady or decreased.
        The consequences of inaction are on full display during this pandemic.  The former president took little action other than telling companies to develop a vaccine, which they were always going to do.  With the massively lopsided pandemic response, lives were needlessly lost and can never be replaced in the eyes of the grieving families.  Yet now, the Biden administration is choosing to “bet big” on government action.  Yet where some political commentators claim this is a departure from the status quo, it is actually a return to normalcy.  For 150 years, the government tackled enormous projects, from world wars to highway systems, massive bridges to colossal dams.  These actions were interrupted with the election of Ronald Regan and his position that “government is the problem.”   His conservative experiment resulting in 40 years of government inaction has been a massive failure, exemplified in a shrinking middle class, failing infrastructure, and dismal pandemic response.  The Biden administration’s spending plan and tax hikes for corporations and the top earners are a return to what we know works.
        Conservatives are currently engaging in a strange culture war because they are having a hard time undermining current democratic policy proposals. T axing the wealthy has 64% support, gun control has 57%, green initiatives have 63%.  But most of all, citizens are looking for action. Minority leader McConnell has threatened a “scorched earth” policy, bringing the entire legislator to a halt of the filibuster is disbanded in the Senate.  This naked partisan threat does not inspire hope in regular citizens.  Rather it dissuades voters from supporting the Republican Party because it exemplifies everything voters hate about government.  There was a mantra in the Obama administration and echoed on Pod Save America by former staffers: get caught trying.  It seems the Biden administration has taken this lesson to heart and doubled down on enacting change we can believe in.

#FitzFile