Not That You Asked

Believe it or not, there has been some good to come from this pandemic. Locally the self distancing we are practicing, and the fewer shoppers in the stores, probably saved a lot of lives when that tornado hit Jonesboro. Normally on a Saturday afternoon the mall would have been packed with customers. There's no telling what the death and injury toll would have been otherwise.

The situation has also proved liberals, or progressives, or whatever we are being called these days right on two issues--global warming and the need for a strong central government.

First of all, I have never understood why caring about the environment has become a liberal issue. This planet is the only home we have. Keeping it habitable should be a concern whatever your politics is.

But, the big debate on the climate these days is about global warming. Conservatives argue that global warming is a natural occurring event. Liberals say it is caused by man. One result of the pandemic is that we have found out definitely that global warming is caused by man. Since the world has slowed down, with fewer planes and cars being used, the amount of carbon dioxide being produced has dropped significantly.

The problem is that this is something that has been proved by science. Most of us accept something when it becomes a scientific fact. Conservatives, religious fundamentalists, and Trump's base don't. For them if they can't find it in the Bible, or hear it from Trump, it is "fake news".

The pandemic has also proved that it is better to have a strong central government instead of a weak one. Of course, the people I just listed won't believe that but it's true.

President Trump has left it up to the individual states to fight the pandemic as best they can, while the federal government sits back and watches. He blames the lack of equipment and supplies on the Governors, and takes no responsibility for our slow response to the situation.

The result is that we have the 50 states, plus the federal government all bidding on what they need. The result is that suppliers are jacking up prices on all of us, with the goods going to the highest bidder.

What the President, and the small government believers don't seem to understand is, that when there is a national emergency, we need a strong central government to run the response. Instead of 51 bidders for products, there should be just one. A strong central government could also use the military to deliver supplies and testing materials around the country.

The President, for all of his talk about how powerful he is, seems reluctant to do anything. He won't order a national stay-at-home law. He won't use the Defense Appropriation Law. He even doesn't want to share the national stockpile of health equipment with the states. Jared Kushner, the son-in-law in charge of the pandemic, and everything else, put it this way, "The notion of the federal stockpile was that it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be the states' stockpiles that they can use." To put it another way, "It's ours, and you can't have it."

While it is nice to have progressive ideas proven right, it's not much consolation right now. I would much rather have a President that does more than just play one on TV.