polecat news and views: The Morning Briefing: Nation's Political Class Perfectly OK With Your Financial Death

Thursday, May 7, 2020

The Morning Briefing: Nation's Political Class Perfectly OK With Your Financial Death

Unemployed people, numbering about 5,000, wait outside the State Labor Bureau which houses the State Temporary Employment Relief administration in New York City, Nov. 24, 1933. The crowd began to gather at 5 a.m. to register for possibly 90,000 federal relief jobs during the Great Depression. (AP Photo)

Can We Stop Pretending This Is Just About Saving Lives?

There is apparently a limit to the number of times one can be lectured about saving lives from arrogant politicians who are all insisting that they know what’s best for the citizenry before one snaps and it would seem that I hit it sometime in the past 48 hours.

I know I have written a lot about the liberty-quashing, Soviet-esque creepiness of the shutdowns but it’s the economy that is weighing heavily on my mind. I have friends and relatives who are greatly struggling right now. Even though my work situation isn’t “essential” it’s still chugging along for the moment. If we are in this shutdown quagmire much longer, who knows if that will last.

I think it’s fair at this point to worry about when everything will really be open for business. March 31st became April 30th which is now May 15th or, in the case of Oregon, July freakin’ 6th:

On Friday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown held a press conference to discuss the latest developments in the containment efforts of the Wuhan coronavirus, and how to implement safe reopening procedures for different parts of Oregon. She failed, however, to announce the specific framework of the reopening, and said she would extend the emergency declaration until July 6 — two days after Independence Day.

Are you seriously telling me that, given another two months, that idiot lib and her trusted advisers can’t come up with a safe plan for people to enjoy Independence Day, even in a greatly modified fashion? These are the nimrods with whom we are supposed to be trusting our health?

That date seems even more arbitrary than all of the other arbitrary extensions. Given that and the fact that this particular governor seems to be the most inept of them all it’s not inconceivable that she would extend it even further.

I can’t wrap my head around what it must feel like to be casually told that you can’t get a paycheck for another two months after having gone two months without one already.

My friend Brandon Morse made a wonderful video for our sister site RedState titled “The Economy Is the People.” He explains that the people who want Americans to go back to work are not, in fact, heartless, but the actual compassionate ones in all of this drama.

What does it look like on the other side of this when people have survived physically only to have had their livelihoods destroyed or greatly compromised?

The political elites in this country don’t care, because they won’t have any financial worries. We’re just game pieces that they’re jerking around.

Make no mistake about this: the Democrats would love to emerge from this with as many Americans as possible in financial ruin. It’s a twofold dream of theirs now. They hope to ruin the election for President Trump and they love it when people are in dire straits and dependent upon the government. Never mind the fact that the government is the taxpayers and has less money to spend when there are fewer of them, the Dems are quite OK with printing Monopoly money and all of the long term bad economic consequences of that route.

I expect the worst from the Democrats though. The timid Republican governors are a particularly galling disappointment, however. My own governor — Doug Ducey — just seems to be flailing and trying to look as tough as other governors. President Trump is supposed to visit Arizona today and meet with Ducey. Hopefully he’ll bring some extra backbone on Air Force One and give it to the governor.

My great hope is that a lot of politicians lose their jobs post-coronavirus.

Alas, my faith in the electorate isn’t any greater than my faith in the political class.

Oh, By the Way…