Republicans Are Now Actively Endorsing Eugenics To Solve Coronavirus Pandemic
This could not be crueler, stupider, or more selfish.
by Ben Cohen
Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick (R) has a theory on how to survive the Coronavirus pandemic: ask the elderly to die for the sake of the economy.
During an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson this week, Patrick argued that contrary to all health experts advice, Americans should not practice social distancing so that Americans can go back to work. Free market capitalism and the American Dream are, according to Patrick, more important than the lives of everyone over 70.
“Those of us who are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves but don’t sacrifice the country,” Patrick told Carlson. “Don’t do that. Don’t ruin this great American Dream.”
Grandparents, claimed Patrick, who turns 70 next week, have a “choice” to make as Coronavirus decimates the stock market and upends business all over the country.
"No one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?' And if that is the exchange, I'm all in."
“We all want to live. We all want to live with our grandchildren as long as we can,” he went on. “But the point is our biggest gift we give to our country and our children and our grandchildren is the legacy of our country, and right now, that is at risk.”
There are a few problems with this theory. The first, very obvious one is that seniors most certainly won’t be able to take care of themselves, as Patrick suggested.
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Hospitals Can’t Cope
When someone gets desperately sick, they go to the hospital where qualified health care practitioners (almost all under the age of 70) look after them and supply life saving medical treatments. If all of those self sacrificing seniors go to hospital at the same time — which is happening right now — the entire health care system will go down as it has in Italy, China and Spain. That means potentially hundreds and thousands, if not millions of people could die from other treatable diseases or accidents because there would be no one to treat them. So not only would Patrick be sacrificing himself and millions of other seniors, he would be sacrificing pregnant women, victims of car accidents, cancer patients and children in need of hospital beds.
Second, who is going to pay for all of the medical treatment needed to treat millions of elderly people flooding the healthcare system when everyone stops practicing social distancing? Are seniors going to cash out their retirement funds and sell their houses to fund drastically underfunded hospitals? Are they going to ask younger generations to pay for it? Mass funerals and graves cost money too, so throwing yourself at the mercy of a potentially lethal virus in order to save the stock market might not be such a wise investment strategy.
Leave aside the deeply troubling ethical aspects of Patrick’s suggestion that everyone over 70 in America consign themselves to a grim end, anaesthetized on a ventilator in a makeshift warehouse, he clearly hasn’t thought about logistical or financial ramifications at all.
Money, Money, Money
The most troubling aspect of Patrick’s solution to the financial crisis are of course the ethical ramifications. His Dickensian view of work is indicative of current Republican philosophy about human life. There is nothing more important than working hard and making money. You are born, you work, you buys stuff, then you die. Life for Republicans like Patrick is secondary to financial markets and the wealth of millionaires — so much so that Patrick himself would be willing to sacrifice himself to keep the system ticking over.
As Donald Trump defies the advice of medical experts and hints that the US will open for business in under a month, we are now seeing the shocking depravity of a political party that purports itself to be “pro life”. Unborn fetuses are apparently important, but after you leave the birth canal, you are a distant second to the S&P 500 and asset management firms. Once you are over 70, you are basically expendable.
Patrick might think he is being noble, and his intentions may well be. But he is, like almost all other active Republicans today, wildly misinformed, a slave to financial markets, and not very bright.
America does not understand what Coronavirus is
It is important to understand that America is still in the beginning phases of the Coronavirus outbreak. The hospital systems in most states are not yet under severe pressure, but modeling predicts the US is going to be the next epicenter of the disease in the coming weeks unless drastic action is taken.
For many, the Coronavirus is still not a reality. Lieutenant Governor Patrick has not seen bodies spilling out of churches in Texas. He has not seen families wiped out by the disease. But that is changing rapidly on the ground in Texas, and his state will be ravaged by Coronavirus too, especially given the local government’s lack of planning for epidemics like this. Reports Politico:
The swift-spreading coronavirus public health crisis is catching Texas unprepared. The state, which didn’t expand Medicaid, has the highest uninsured rate in the country meaning millions of people don’t have doctors to call if they show symptoms. And Abbott has opposed local paid sick leave ordinances, which could encourage sick people to stay home and keep from spreading the virus, saying they hamper business growth….
Health providers say the state has been slow to ramp up testing, relying instead on local officials and private companies to step up efforts. About 1,200 people have been tested so far — a fifth of the number that have been tested in California and half the number that have been tested in Minnesota, according to a POLITICO analysis of state tallies.
Patrick is no virus denier, but he clearly hasn’t grasped the full implications of what Coronavirus is and what is about to happen. It is one thing to talk about sacrificing seniors to the disease, but it is another actually doing it.
Perhaps he should visit a hospital in New York, where cases are surging at an “astronomical” rate and the infection rate is eight to 10 times greater than other parts of the country. Perhaps he should look at the images coming out of Italy and Spain, where residents are locked in their homes terrified that they might get sick and die. Because that is what can happen to Texas, or anywhere in the world that puts money over human life and does not take this seriously.
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Dan Patrick shows In a nutshell all of the traits that make him and the rest of the Republican Party so unfit to govern:
- Seeing a solution as being a choice between two (and only two) options.
- Unable and/or utter unwilling to understand anything at more than at a surface level (So solutions are simplistic and consequences are never considered. “We do this and all will be rosy.”)
- Putting businesses and the rich above all other considerations. Priority one is, always is, making sure that nothing bad ever happens to them. It’s a belief so ingrained that they can’t even see it.
Tell them there are individual people who desperately need help, they’ll reply, “Oh, well we help them by bailing out businesses.”
Point out the people will be helped far more if they’re helped directly, they will insist that’s what they’re doing by providing the help indirectly to businesses.
” ... has opposed local paid sick leave ordinances, which could encourage sick people to stay home and keep from spreading the virus, saying they hamper business growth…”
Because nothing, NOTHING, is more important than growing the business.