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| Poster circulating in leftist groups |
"How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel?
Easy to be hard.
Easy to be cold."
Three Dog Night, Lyrics: Easy to be Hard, 1969
Life is precious. The two parties have battle lines. A switch is underway.
Few posts in this blog created backlash and firestorm like the one by Bob Warren on March 10.
He turns 93 in April, and he said that he recognized that people like him were old, vulnerable, and at this point mostly "dead weight." He enjoys his life and wants to continue it but said that he and other elderly people had their turn. Click: "It's time for us old people to get out of the way."
Critics of me and this blog used the words "callous, indefensible and most unmindful" and "un-analytical, selectively biased, misleading, truth opaque." The criticism came primarily from the political left: life is precious. Warren and I were disgusting ogres for even bringing up the subject.
Critics say that of course we shut down economic activity to slow the virus spread because it is the right thing to do to protect something priceless, the lives of Americans. Protecting life is the highest value.
(A Washington Post reporter had the same experience as this blog, after talking to the parents of a man whose blunt tweet said that social distancing was sacrificing the young to protect the old. How dare he contact the tweeter, and worse, the parents--who frustrated the outrage by saying they agreed with their son.)
Critics say that of course we shut down economic activity to slow the virus spread because it is the right thing to do to protect something priceless, the lives of Americans. Protecting life is the highest value.
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| Click: Washington Post reporter blasted |
(A Washington Post reporter had the same experience as this blog, after talking to the parents of a man whose blunt tweet said that social distancing was sacrificing the young to protect the old. How dare he contact the tweeter, and worse, the parents--who frustrated the outrage by saying they agreed with their son.)
The response to the virus is partisan, and it is coming in surprising directions, given the context of the abortion issue.
Republicans have been the party that says--on abortion--that "life is precious." A Republican litmus test requires a candidate in good GOP graces to say a fertilized egg is a human life, and abortion was murder. It's a matter of principle. Life must be respected and protected.
Meanwhile, almost all Democrats in good standing support a woman's right to decide for herself on whether to bring a conception to term. Democrats consider the woman's autonomy to be the precious thing to protect, not the potential life of the embrio.
Switch. In the context of the virus, Democrats are the ones talking about the preciousness of life, sounding just like Republicans on the abortion issue. Democrats argue for the primacy of compassion for the vulnerable. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks of his elderly mother and says it is outrageous and offensive that people would risk the lives of people like her and rush to return to normal.
(In an ironic twist and yet further complication, my interview subject, Bob Warren, comes from the political left, when he argues to stop spending huge resources to protect seniors. He isn't advocating for business, but rather for fairness. Each owe a duty to the whole community. People his age are gobbling more than their share of resources, thereby impoverishing the young and holding everyone back.)
Republicans have been the party that says--on abortion--that "life is precious." A Republican litmus test requires a candidate in good GOP graces to say a fertilized egg is a human life, and abortion was murder. It's a matter of principle. Life must be respected and protected.
Meanwhile, almost all Democrats in good standing support a woman's right to decide for herself on whether to bring a conception to term. Democrats consider the woman's autonomy to be the precious thing to protect, not the potential life of the embrio.
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| Marching for the unborn |
Switch. In the context of the virus, Democrats are the ones talking about the preciousness of life, sounding just like Republicans on the abortion issue. Democrats argue for the primacy of compassion for the vulnerable. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks of his elderly mother and says it is outrageous and offensive that people would risk the lives of people like her and rush to return to normal.
Republicans are following Trump's lead. Don't make the cure worse than the disease. Trump gave the virus a deadline, Easter. A meme circulates in conservative circles, shake hands to annoy a liberal. After all, the virus is a Democratic hoax and a blue state problem.
It is also partly the residue of Trump's early downplaying of the virus. Fox switched from scoffing at Democrats as worrywarts and hoax promoters, but the idea remains that it is in Democrats' interest to damage Trump's economy by over-hyping the virus threat.
Republicans are coming to the economy's defense from regulation-loving, job-killing Democrats.
The end result is a switch in the language one hears from political leaders of the two parties. Republicans are now the practical ones. "Life" is subject to a balance of values.
Meanwhile, Democrats are talking about life being precious.
It is also partly the residue of Trump's early downplaying of the virus. Fox switched from scoffing at Democrats as worrywarts and hoax promoters, but the idea remains that it is in Democrats' interest to damage Trump's economy by over-hyping the virus threat.
Republicans are coming to the economy's defense from regulation-loving, job-killing Democrats.
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| Cartoon circulating in left social media |
Meanwhile, Democrats are talking about life being precious.
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