It Takes a Virus

It Takes a Virus

I have read an interesting piece of writing from Heather Cox Richardson in the last few days and it has gotten me thinking. I have spent the weekend with some in-laws from Georgia and Texas. We have steadfastly avoided political discussions though there have been a few anecdotes that remind me that we come from very different ends of the political spectrum. It is not so much about things said as things not said that are the clue to the leanings of these fine folks. This crowd consists of a pair of couples that are in their mid-eighties at least. You can see their age in their gate, which is slow and steady, but decidedly cautious. You can also see their pleasantness by the quick way they smile. But mostly, you can see their sharpness of mind as you can converse with any one of them and there is little or no evidence of anything but full awareness of who, what and where they are and what they are about. I have privately listened very intently for any signs of the thinking that makes for the divisiveness of our political moment. Since I am one of their chauffeurs for the weekend, I have some quality time with them in the car and, I must admit, I have wandered into a few places of discussion which are intended to test where their political boundaries lie. Since the two men are physicians, these are not uneducated people, quite the contrary.

At this exact moment in political time and space in this country there are several hot-button issues. I actually don’t think the top news agenda item of the retreat from Afghanistan is one of them. While some may challenge the manner and efficacy of our exit and the resultant chaos which is getting sprawled across out headlines for the past few weeks, there is very little ideological or practical view on our desire as a nation to do anything but leave countries like Afghanistan to the Afghans to manage. In many ways, the Taliban, that most derogatory of groups that represent the mujahideen freedom fighters of the Pashtun people, have become less offensive to us and more synonymous with us against the far more fundamentalist and extreme groups like the Islamic State of Khorastan (ISIS-K). We see the Taliban trying to weather the whirlwind while ISIS-K is reaping the whirlwind by stoking the fires of hatred for all things Western. It all takes up a lot of the news cycle, but the undercurrent that doesn’t seem to change is really about the fundamental fabric of our country. Are we a country about individual freedoms or are we a country about the common good? And, to pre-empt your question, yes, I believe those are mutually-exclusive concepts.

The common good is, at its core, about public safety. There are many manifestations of this basic Maslowian need, but right now it is mostly taking the form of how we are addressing or not addressing the COVID Pandemic. The battlegrounds where this seems to be happening on the surface the most are in Texas and Florida, and, the Florida that extends northward into Georgia. These are the places where the Pandemic rages with all its Delta Variant might at this time. These are also the places where our visitors for the weekend reside and developed their world view, which is decidedly and quite proudly, Southern. As educated, medically-astute people, our in-laws are perhaps the best of the breed from these red, red places in America, but make no mistake, they are of that breed of Southerners that formed the core of the Confederacy. It is that Confederacy that seems to represent the extremist views of the Right in America today. If we leave aside that touchy subject of the Lost Cause of state separatist desires and that ignominious right to hold human slaves, what seems to represent this Confederate thinking more than anything is the manner in which we handle the Pandemic.

Governors Greg Abbot of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida (and perhaps a bit of Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia) have taken strong stands against masking and mandated vaccinations. While I and many others may think their views are merely political and are not emblematic of their broader goals for the common good, it is hard not to see their stands at very least as a battleground for the issue of the limitation of individual rights versus the needs of the collective. We are dying and endangering the lives of many of our fellow citizens every time we do something that allows the COVID virus to go unchecked. The two basic tools we have to control this virus in any way are, first and foremost, vaccinations, and then the hygiene of masking. And these are the two things that are drawing fire by Abbot and DeSantis, both of whom aspire to grander public office on the platform of the right wing Libertarian view of the world.

Interestingly, while this battle rages in the press, the ridiculousness of the stance of these two symbols of the new Right are on full display and are so wrong. It is hard to imagine that anyone doesn’t see this even though they are reluctant to abandon their fearless (that would be lacking in fear for the health and wellbeing of their constituents) stance. Given that our guests are all vaccinated, I am inclined to believe that they understand the importance of the vaccine to the health and wellbeing of the population. I have no idea how they feel about masking, but they did all fly here the other day and I know for a fact that they willingly succumbed to the mask mandate onboard the flight. That at least means that they have not stubbornly stuck their heels in for purposes of their Libertarian ideals. In the end, that tells me that these people are not Do-Or-Die Republicans, but rather more like conservatives with in-tact heads on their shoulders. Would that all Republicans be so attached to their good sense.

Yesterday’s top news item was that the U.S. military retaliated for the Hamid Karzai Airport suicide bombing that killed thirteen U.S. servicemen and countless nearby innocent Afghans, by sending what they are calling now an “Over the Horizon Counterterrorism Attack”. This was basically an Eye in the Sky drone that bombed the shit out of a very precisely targeted military unit of ISIS-K and had no reported collateral civilian damage. This is the new face of the U.S. military presence in places like Afghanistan such that it does not endanger U.S. or civilian lives as much as possible. It speaks to a well-reasoned approach to solving the needs of the common good, and in this case I mean common in the broadest and best sense in that it includes what is good for non-U.S. citizens by trying to minimize their collateral damage. This strikes me as a way to solve a common problem while limiting the total destruction of individual rights. If only we could find a similar tactical solution for COVID and allow the pontificators-in-chief in Tallahassee, Austin and Mar-a-Lago to have their glory without sacrificing the lives of everyone around them and those others in need of serious medical attention that has otherwise been averted to solve the unnecessary portions of the COVID Pandemic.

Perhaps we have a critical test of all of this in the form of another external threat of Biblical proportions. Hurricane Ida, with its Category IV designation, is quickly closing in on the shores of New Orleans sixteen years after Category V Katrina visited those shores and levees. No evidence for the need for common good thinking versus individual rights can be found than a natural disaster. I wish every Republican that wants to be an Libertarian at any cost could stop to consider how they would feel if they suddenly and unexpectedly fell victim to Ida. Maybe it just takes a virus, or maybe a hurricane to force comprehension.