Explaining the Unexplainable
How do we make sense of Republican governors actively thwarting efforts to protect their citizens from COVID-19? Also, kill the Senate.
I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If someone sent you this email - or you are a free subscriber - and you’d like to subscribe: you can sign up here.
A quick reminder that I’ll be hosting a Zoom chat this evening at 7:00 PM. Please bring your favorite beverage as we talk politics and whatever else is of interest to you! As usual, leave any questions or topics you’d like addressed in the comments below. It’s open to all, so check this one out if you haven’t been able to make the Friday afternoon Zoom cast. The link is here.
Depraved Indifference
What’s happening this week in Florida and Texas is a horror show. There simply is no other way to put it. The governors of those two states (Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott)— the second and third largest in the country — are actively putting obstacles in the way of local officials trying to protect their state’s citizens against COVID-19.
I suggest reading this entire thread from Andy Slavitt, who until recently coordinated the COVID response in the Biden administration. As he points out, both governors are preventing schools and colleges from requiring vaccines, masks, proof of vaccination, and even COVID-19 testing. Moreover, Florida is not only forbidding schools to issue mask mandates; they are threatening to withhold pay for school administrators who put such rules in place. As a result, Florida has hit the highest number of COVID cases and hospitalizations since the pandemic began. Think about that for a second: Florida has reached that number even though half its population is vaccinated.
In Texas, the state has reached 10,000 COVID hospitalizations — its highest level in 6 months. Again, this is happening with a significant percentage of its population fully vaccinated. Nonetheless, the state has moved full speed ahead with efforts to handcuff local school officials. Earlier this week, two Texas courts blocked Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order preventing school districts from issuing mask mandates. Abbott vowed to take these districts to court. Meanwhile, the state is suggesting not requiring schools to notify parents of COVID-19 cases. Keep in mind that schools inform parents when there is a lice outbreak.
In Tennessee, every House Republican has now signed a letter demanding that Republican Governor Bill Lee convene a special session to block schools from issuing mask mandates and limiting the authority of health departments. So here we have the party of limited government and opposition to government mandates actively trying to politicize public health decision-making. Also, in the Volunteer State, anti-mask protesters at a school board meeting assailed public health officials who called for kids to wear masks in schools.
In Kentucky, the state’s Republican attorney general is suing the Democratic governor over masking rules. In Iowa, the GOP state legislature has banned local mask mandates. In Mississippi, the state’s GOP governor won’t issue mask mandates for schools and has called CDC guidance on masks “foolish and harmful” and “not rational science.” Meanwhile, more than 4,000 elementary school students have already been forced to quarantine in Mississippi, and, as of three days ago, the state had no available ICU beds. In Arizona, 26 Republican state legislators are urging the state’s GOP Governor to withhold public funding from school districts that require students wear masks.
If one didn’t know better, it seems that Republican officials are not figuratively, but literally, trying to kill their own citizens.
Ok, perhaps accusing them of murder is too strong. But how about depraved indifference? The fact that Republicans are doing this for essentially political reasons — to play to the anti-government sentiment of their supporters — makes it that much worse. Honestly, what kind of person decides to go into politics and then uses their position to purposely put people in harm’s way to fulfill their career ambitions? Even worse, what kind of person finds such qualities redeeming and grounds for reelection?
One of the reasons I keep writing about this issue is because I am trying to process it. We’ve all been through so much over the past 18 months. We’ve lost friends and loved ones; been stuck at home unable to enjoy the activities and experiences that bring us joy and happiness; we’ve missed out on life events, missed our friends and families; our stress levels have gone through the roof. Now we have this life-saving vaccine that can not only return us to normal; it can spare families the acute pain of losing someone they love. After 18 months, we know all the ways that we can keep ourselves safe. And yet, Americans are still dying, needlessly and tragically. It is just so utterly horrifying — and none of it adds up or makes any sense at all. It makes you feel angry, sad, and powerless — angry that we can end this and we aren’t; sad that people are still suffering; and powerless because there is seemingly nothing we can do to get through to the people responsible for it.
Last year, I talked at length but the seeming death cult among Republicans and the willingness of people to put themselves in harm’s way when it came to COVID. Yet, every month, every week, and every day it just gets worse. We’ve reached a point now where Republican officials are forcing parents to put their kids in potential harm’s way. It used to be that the downward spiral of our politics made me question what kind of country we are becoming. But, now I find myself questioning our very humanity. How is it possible that so many could descend to this level?
Kill The Senate
In the Washington Post, Paul Waldman has written a piece so sexy I want to take it out for dinner and drinks. According to Waldman, “there may be no greater obstacle to both a democratically responsive political system and an efficiently operating federal government than the United States Senate.”
Yes, yes, yes.
When I used to give public talks — before the pandemic — I would often get asked what one political reform would I like to see in the United States. My answer was always the same: get rid of the Senate. No institution of government, even the historically reactionary Supreme Court, does more to impede progress and subvert democracy than the United States Senate.
The Senate is fundamentally unrepresentative: it grants equal representation to the 600,000 residents of Wyoming and the 40 million citizens of California. And as Waldman points out, “we now have a Senate divided 50-50, yet the 50 Democrats represent over 41 million more Americans than the 50 Republicans.”
Moreover, the Senate has traditionally played the role of a roadblock to reform. In the 50s and 60s, it was on civil rights legislation. More recently, it’s been blocking pretty much every piece of progressive legislation that comes down the pike. The specific rules of the Senate encourage such legislative trolling. Indeed, the place was seemingly designed not to make things happen; but to make things not happen.
The House of Representatives has its flaws, but at least it is democratic. I mean that in the sense that the House actually carries out the will of the voters. Americans chose a Democratic president, a Democratic House, and a Democratic Senate in the last election. This year, the House has enacted hundreds of pieces of legislation that fulfill the promises made by Democratic candidates on the campaign trail. That’s how an elected legislature is supposed to work in a democracy. But because of the Senate and its many tools of obstruction, most of this legislation is unlikely to pass. What kind of mature democracy entrusts its citizens to cast a vote and then makes it nearly impossible to implement its will? The answer is virtually none because we are one of the few democracies in the world that maintains such an unrepresentative system of government. Every two years in November, we tell Americans that their votes matter and then spend all the time in between proving them wrong.
Quite simply, the Senate serves no useful purpose. It is undemocratic. It thwarts the will of the majority, empowers the reactionary attitudes of the minority, makes governing more difficult, and reform less likely to be enacted. Abolishing it tomorrow would make America a better and more representative country.
What’s Going On?
I’m leaving on vacation tomorrow, and boy, am I excited. To say that I am burned out and need a break is putting it mildly. Before I go, I wanted to mention two books I’m reading. I just finished “Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt,” which I thoroughly enjoyed. Greenblatt, a Shakespeare scholar, looked at how the Bard explained and understood the rise of tyrannical rulers and the enablers who sustained their rise to power. “Tyrant” was written in 2019 and felt like a book-length troll of Donald Trump. Reading it, I kept making the connections between Richard III, Macbeth, King Lear, and our previous president.
I’m currently reading “MacArthur at War” by Walter Borneman, which offers a rather eviscerating look at a general that I’ve long believed is among America’s most overrated. Borneman also provides a fascinating glimpse into US military strategy in the South Pacific during the war. I’m always looking for good books on the US War in the Pacific, and while Borneman is focused on MacArthur, it’s a fascinating read on a war front that often gets ignored.
On Vacation
As I mentioned above, I am taking next week off. I still plan to write a bit, but not quite at the same level as usual. So have fun while I’m away, and don’t get into too much trouble!
Yes, yes, yes to everything you wrote. Enjoy your vacation, you deserve it.
I hope you were able to catch Yvon Abrams cooum in the globe Thursday and echoes much of this and is worth your attention