The Politics of Non-Politics, or The Need to Hang Together
In a recent article on Fox News, it was reported that California, Oregon, and Washington have come together in an exclusionary pact on how they will re-open their economies.... somehow together, yet somehow not hinder "state-specific plans." Together, but separate, I guess.
Trump has Tweeted, correctly, that it is the President's call on this. For one, it only makes sense that 50 interconnected economies are really one large economy and each ship needs a single captain, not 51 different captains.
Also, as Churchill learned the hard way, if you are going to be responsible for something, you have to have control over it. We can't have states going rogue at a time like this unless we truly want either a civil war or a dissolution of the Union.
And, Constitutionally, the Federal government controls and regulates interstate commerce. If this had been a localized event to one state, then certainly the governor of that state would be the one to make the decisions. I say "certainly", but there are even then arguments that the intertwining of our economies means what happens in one state has affects on other states and so an overriding command structure taking into account all needs and circumstances is required, again the Federal government is that structure.
This is almost painful to write as I am very much a proponent for individual states' rights, but we have to remember the failing points of the Articles of Confederation which led to the writing of the Constitution. Among those was the weakness of each state going their own way and therefore blocking commerce and business between states.
We've certainly seen the commerce clause beaten and abused to within an inch of it's life and extended far beyond anything ever intended (thank you Chief Justice Roberts). But, like it or not, we are one big country and we need to all be on the same page in these dire times.
When the Fed went to Trump with the plan of turning off the spigot on the economy all at once, it was a gamble never made before in the history of mankind. We are awash is funny money right now just to keep the gears greased long enough to see us through the worst of things and then the spigot is to be turned back on full force. The hope being that the economy will roar back to life. I am less than optimistic, but have a plan and work the plan.
We can't have states fracturing off at this stage of the game. It's worse than switching horses in mid-stream. It could lead to a weak point which could make the entire dam fail.
And, need I say it, but if Gov Newsom thinks this is a good idea, my deepest condolences to CA. He said decisions would be made using science and concern for health outcomes, not politics - taking a swipe at Trump - but the economy isn't a science. I know that's not exactly what he meant, but it's what it boils down to. What he meant was COVID-19 is going to be making the decisions, rhetoric of "flipping the script on COVID-19" not withstanding.
Politics, not the infighting we tend to think of, but the art of balancing all concerns, must be the deciding factor. If there's a primary criticism during all of this is that our leaders haven't led. They abdicated power to virologists and scientists whose only view was in how to control the spread of the disease, all other considerations which needed to be addressed weren't.
It's our leaders job to take all of the information, gather it together, and make the hard decisions. Sometimes people die from those decisions. Sometimes people have to die so that others may live. We can't have theorists and people with blinders on guiding a society as complex as the United States.
It's the Doctrine of Competing Harms. You look at everything and pick the least harmful of the options. Some may die of COVID-19 because of that. But, how many will die because of artificially enforced poverty and a broken economy? How many who have died were going to die in that time frame anyways due to other complications? How many extra suicides, episodes of child abuse, and spousal abuse have we suffered due to quarantine? How many lives have truly been saved?
Sweden is bucking the trend and is not suffering unduly for it so far. The same with a handful of states. The evidence, as it stands today, is that a grave mistake was made in shutting off our economy. I commend Trump for his willingness to do it. In doing so, he wrecked his greatest achievement while in Office, but was it the correct decision? Was he led astray by too few opinions focused on too narrow of a desired outcome?
Now, as things hang by a thread, three states want to go their own way. This cannot be allowed. We are in this together by this point. It's going to take all hands pulling in the same direction to even get back a fraction of what was given up.
And this is only talking about the economy. We haven't even begun to touch on what we've done to the idea of individual freedom. I just couldn't find the clause in the Constitution that said it was null and void in the case of fear, overreaction, or even a legitimate pandemic.
Face it, a quarantine is when you force the sick to be isolated. When you force the healthy to stay at home it's house arrest. Don't believe me? Try paddle boarding off the coast of Malibu and let me know what happens. But, to that on another day.
Trump has Tweeted, correctly, that it is the President's call on this. For one, it only makes sense that 50 interconnected economies are really one large economy and each ship needs a single captain, not 51 different captains.
Also, as Churchill learned the hard way, if you are going to be responsible for something, you have to have control over it. We can't have states going rogue at a time like this unless we truly want either a civil war or a dissolution of the Union.
And, Constitutionally, the Federal government controls and regulates interstate commerce. If this had been a localized event to one state, then certainly the governor of that state would be the one to make the decisions. I say "certainly", but there are even then arguments that the intertwining of our economies means what happens in one state has affects on other states and so an overriding command structure taking into account all needs and circumstances is required, again the Federal government is that structure.
This is almost painful to write as I am very much a proponent for individual states' rights, but we have to remember the failing points of the Articles of Confederation which led to the writing of the Constitution. Among those was the weakness of each state going their own way and therefore blocking commerce and business between states.
We've certainly seen the commerce clause beaten and abused to within an inch of it's life and extended far beyond anything ever intended (thank you Chief Justice Roberts). But, like it or not, we are one big country and we need to all be on the same page in these dire times.
When the Fed went to Trump with the plan of turning off the spigot on the economy all at once, it was a gamble never made before in the history of mankind. We are awash is funny money right now just to keep the gears greased long enough to see us through the worst of things and then the spigot is to be turned back on full force. The hope being that the economy will roar back to life. I am less than optimistic, but have a plan and work the plan.
We can't have states fracturing off at this stage of the game. It's worse than switching horses in mid-stream. It could lead to a weak point which could make the entire dam fail.
And, need I say it, but if Gov Newsom thinks this is a good idea, my deepest condolences to CA. He said decisions would be made using science and concern for health outcomes, not politics - taking a swipe at Trump - but the economy isn't a science. I know that's not exactly what he meant, but it's what it boils down to. What he meant was COVID-19 is going to be making the decisions, rhetoric of "flipping the script on COVID-19" not withstanding.
Politics, not the infighting we tend to think of, but the art of balancing all concerns, must be the deciding factor. If there's a primary criticism during all of this is that our leaders haven't led. They abdicated power to virologists and scientists whose only view was in how to control the spread of the disease, all other considerations which needed to be addressed weren't.
It's our leaders job to take all of the information, gather it together, and make the hard decisions. Sometimes people die from those decisions. Sometimes people have to die so that others may live. We can't have theorists and people with blinders on guiding a society as complex as the United States.
It's the Doctrine of Competing Harms. You look at everything and pick the least harmful of the options. Some may die of COVID-19 because of that. But, how many will die because of artificially enforced poverty and a broken economy? How many who have died were going to die in that time frame anyways due to other complications? How many extra suicides, episodes of child abuse, and spousal abuse have we suffered due to quarantine? How many lives have truly been saved?
Sweden is bucking the trend and is not suffering unduly for it so far. The same with a handful of states. The evidence, as it stands today, is that a grave mistake was made in shutting off our economy. I commend Trump for his willingness to do it. In doing so, he wrecked his greatest achievement while in Office, but was it the correct decision? Was he led astray by too few opinions focused on too narrow of a desired outcome?
Now, as things hang by a thread, three states want to go their own way. This cannot be allowed. We are in this together by this point. It's going to take all hands pulling in the same direction to even get back a fraction of what was given up.
And this is only talking about the economy. We haven't even begun to touch on what we've done to the idea of individual freedom. I just couldn't find the clause in the Constitution that said it was null and void in the case of fear, overreaction, or even a legitimate pandemic.
Face it, a quarantine is when you force the sick to be isolated. When you force the healthy to stay at home it's house arrest. Don't believe me? Try paddle boarding off the coast of Malibu and let me know what happens. But, to that on another day.
