Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick speaks out in favor of sacrifice for …
Dan Patrick, Texas’ Republican lieutenant governor, on Monday night suggested that he and other grandparents would be willing to risk their health and even lives in order for the United States to “get back to work” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Those of us who are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves. But don’t sacrifice the country,” Patrick said on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Patrick, who said he will turn 70 next week, said that he did not fear COVID-19, but feared that stay-at-home orders and economic upheaval would destroy the American way of life.
“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 America loves for its children and grandchildren?’ And if that is the exchange, I’m all in,” Patrick said. [NBC News]
#ICYMI — I was on @FoxNews with @TuckerCarlson tonight. Click here to watch: https://t.co/potQsjdBID#txlege pic.twitter.com/2xLxYQQZVZ
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) March 24, 2020
The “American way of life?” Really?
Or is it the recognition that a devastated economy in which the incompetence of the Trump Administration shines like a fireworks display bodes ill for the Republican Party in the November elections?
There’s a lot wrong here. The easy stuff is to point out that age is not a great proxy for identifying those who are especially at risk from this virus, and, in fact, Patrick is basically calling on everyone in ill health to put their lives on the line for the Republican Party’s political fortunes.
But it’s also shockingly short-term thinking. COVID-19 is not guaranteed to be a one-off event. Paint that on the back of your eyelids, folks. I would be delighted if the biologists or virologists came up with the breakthrough that would permit them to ascertain how to create safe and effective vaccines and cures for viruses in hours or days, but in the meantime, the only responsible course of action is to prepare for a repetition of this event. It may not be a coronavirus, it may take different forms, but it’s only prudent to assume it’ll occur again.
So, using Lt. Governor Patrick’s reasoning, who’ll be the next group to be sacrificed? What if the next pandemic is akin to the Spanish Flu, which victimized the young and healthy in a particularly gruesome death? All set to toss them into the shredder, Lt. Governor?
You may be wondering about the incompetency of this particular political specimen. Keeping in mind my constant and annoying harping on the toxicity of team politics (epitomized by the aphorism that, at election time, Republicans fall into line …), and the slightly more recent observation that the Republican Party is built on religious tenets, such as Abortion is evil, and the best way to climb to the top of the heap is not through demonstrated competency and ability to “work across the aisle,” but by determined clinging to those tenets, I found this entry in Wikipedia revealing:
Patrick opposes abortion and supported Texas’ “Mandatory Ultrasound Bill”, a bill signed into law in May 2011 by Governor Perry, which requires women seeking abortion to have a sonogram of the fetus taken at least twenty-four hours before the abortion is performed.
Patrick opposes abortion in cases of incest and rape. In January 2014, when he was asked about exceptions to outlawing abortion, Patrick said, “The only exception would be if the life of the mother was truly in danger…but that is rare.”
An abortion absolutist. Yep, that’ll demonstrate he’s an appropriate choice for higher office. It doesn’t matter if he’s in earnest or a hypocrite on the subject, or how competent of a leader he may be; the point is that he’s just demonstrated public incompetency in the matter of public health. It’d be fine if he had queried the experts on taking such a position and was rebuffed; I don’t expect anyone to get these things straight on their own.
But to take it public?
No, welcome to the tail-end of Republican team politics, where competency and coherent thought is not just second to allegiance to the religious tenets of the Party, never to be questioned or breached, but does not even exist.
This is what we have to look forward to if the Republicans are reelected in November. I’m an independent, not a Democrat, so if you’re an independent voter as well, take this to heart.
