Coronavirus Is Forcing the GOP to (Tacitly) Admit Its Ideology Is Delusional

[applegrove]

Coronavirus Is Forcing the GOP to (Tacitly) Admit Its Ideology Is Delusional

By Eric Levitz@EricLevitz at NY Magazine

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/coronavirus-trump-dhs-undocumented-workers-essential.html

"SNIP.....

As the coronavirus pandemic shutters America’s storefronts and fills its ICUs, the GOP is camouflaging a whispered confession beneath a cough. The party’s admission is so quiet most Republicans can’t even make it out themselves. But listen carefully to recent directives from the Trump administration and its allies and you’ll hear unmistakably: Our theory of governance is a lie.

The modern conservative movement holds these truths to be self-evident:

1. Undocumented immigrants are a scourge of American society, a nefarious invading army that’s depriving native-born workers of precious jobs, filling our cities with crime, and leeching off our welfare programs.

2. Uncle Sam has grown badly bloated and could govern more effectively if a wide swath of federal agencies were gutted.

3. The market is (a largely) apolitical sphere ruled by the impartial dictates of an invisible hand. Thus the superrich do not owe their astronomical market incomes to any set of politically ordained laws or institutions; rather, they earn their gains in a fundamental, metaphysical sense, and the state must therefore meet a heavy burden before it can justify coercively redistributing the wealth that billionaires have rightly earned. By the same token, the working poor cannot blame their low pay on political powerlessness but the objectively low value of their contributions to society. Thus mandating a higher wage floor would only condemn workers with skills that are objectively worth only $7.25 an hour to permanent unemployment.

......SNIP"

[pnwest]

1. Excellent read. I hope that indeed sone

Republicans are coming to these realizations. Most notably, that the “essential workers” deserve a living wage. Truly, it’s the one single thing that can be done that would have the biggest, most immediate impact on improving quality of life, and spurring the economy. But, until I hear a Republican say these things out loud, I suspect this article is more wishful thinking than fact.

[applegrove]

2. They are hyppocrites if they don't do some thinking. They think they

are perfect job creaters and deserving of accolades and big bonuses, but we are all just either lucky or unlucky or both. Big business needed government help. They can't burry that. They are dependant on people doing the least paying jobs. We are interconnected.

[pnwest]

4. Well, you nailed it - they are hypocrites.

[dogknob]

3. K&R

[scarletlib]

5. Excellent article.