Comments by "MarcosElMalo2" (@MarcosElMalo2) on "The Hill"
channel.
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
There was bipartisan support for $1,200 payments. It’s important to know who blocked that, whether they are Republicans or Democrats (and I’ll give you a guess). Those who compromised and accepted $600 checks shouldn’t be tarred with the same brush. They knew how important it was to get something out the door.
Now let’s get more philosophical for a moment. I want to touch on the orthodox GOP response to lockdowns, which is “the cure can’t be worse than the disease”, meaning jobs are more important than lives, that the economy is more important than hundreds of thousands of lives, that my job is more important than your life or even the lives of my family members. Or even my own life. Sacrificing a half million or a million is worth it if it means we “get back to normal” sooner.
Before addressing the humanitarian aspects, I want to question the premise that the economy can return to normalcy when millions are getting sick, and hundreds of thousands are dying, and sane people concerned for their own health and the health and safety of their families are staying at home as much as possible. It defies logic. Pretending that the deaths aren’t real doesn’t remove them nor does it minimize their cause.
But I hear a straw man conservative saying, “but if people are voluntarily locking themselves down, following mask protocols, limiting their gatherings, why do we need government imposed lockdowns, mandatory masks, and government limitations on gatherings? The reason is this: a significant portion of the populace, for various reasons (usually boiling down to ignorance, delusion, politics, or hatred of expertise), defy common sense measures and are instrumental in the spread of the virus. These self-described “free thinkers” emulate the actions and words of their political leaders, and their selfish, antisocial mindset is reinforced by those words and examples. That is why we need lockdowns. It’s not for the people already doing their best to stay safe. It’s for the jerks that don’t care what happens to anyone else, the ones that defend their “right” to not wear a mask* even when it will deprive others their right to live.
As a conservative, I understand the tendency towards wanting less government control, more liberty, less government spending. I have a basic belief that, for all its problems, capitalism is the best economic engine for the development of society.
However, I do not ignore the fact that we are in a national emergency of unprecedentedly proportions, and that the damage to our country is going to get worse before it gets better. Whether I measure that damage in precious human life or our precious economy, I recognize the reality, and I recognize that ordinary conservative policies are not responsive and in some cases make our national tragedy worse.
And I also recognize that in a time of national emergency, the federal government must lead a national response. At the start of WWII, we did not delegate the response to Japan, Germany, and Italy to the states. There was an all of government response that harnessed the entire country to defend ourselves. Imagine how the war might have ended if each state was left to its own devices as aggressors swept across the globe, while the president insisted it wasn’t a world war. Austerity isn’t an excuse to ignore a national emergency. Individual liberty isn’t permission to thumb your nose at the society that helps protect your liberties. We face a common threat in Covid-19. Unite or die.
“So, what about the stimulus checks?” asks my conservative straw man. Why everyone? Shouldn’t they be targeted only to the most needy? If their sole purpose was to help the most needy, those facing or in the midst of financial collapse, evictions, hunger, etc., yes. And the Senate could have spent the past 6 months determining who should get this assistance and how to deliver it. But that is not the sole purpose of the stimulus checks. The other purpose is right there in the name, STIMULUS. The purpose is to stimulate the economy, to encourage people to spend on goods and services, thereby preserving jobs, which maintains demand for goods and services. It’s a stop gap measure to keep the economy alive, to provide fuel to the engine so it doesn’t die. In the long run, keeping it alive now is cheaper than trying to revive it later. Letting it die increases the risk that capitalism will be replaced by a social system less amicable to human liberties and human rights.
There. That’s the conservative argument FOR economic stimulus. What’s more, it harnesses the marketplace and consumer choice, rather than allowing government to pick the winners. What can be more conservative than that?
1
-
1
-
1
-
@brobroant6205 One aspect of the Democratic Party is that it’s a coalition of factions. Call it a feature or call it a bug, but they’ve rarely been able to achieve anything like the lockstep discipline of the GOP, and when they do unite and coordinate, it doesn’t last for long.
If the GOP dissolves, I’ll bet money that a conservative faction arises within the Democratic Party, probably on a regional basis. There are many moderates and “moderate conservatives” (pardon the oxymoron) that were drummed out of the GOP for disloyalty over the past 20 years. The true believers call them RINOs even as the pool of fiercely loyal to Trump “true Republicans” shrinks with every purge. There are many Republicans and ex Republicans, purged or primary-ed, that could easily win elections under the Democratic banner in red states.
As a conservative, I’m not really worried about single party rule under the Democrats, because the Democrats have never been one single thing. As I said, it’s a coalition party. It can never become too powerful because of infighting, and it can only achieve unity through compromise amongst its factions. The last time the Dems achieved the sort of unity and power that we fear was under FDR—and let us remember that even he did not have absolute power. His scheme to pack the Supreme Court failed utterly (as I suspect Biden will if he tries a similar scheme).
If you think that the Dems have a unified goal of pushing the U.S. into communism or socialism, you’d been deluded by GOP propaganda. If you think that they could achieve this if it was their goal, you’re also delusional. Liberals are not the enemy. Progressives are not the enemy. Moderate Republicans purged as “traitorous” RINOs are not the enemy. The enemy is a thuggish group of fascists that have fooled the Republican base and frightened a lot of cowardly Republican politicians into obeisance.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1