Show passion in this season. Coronavirus is bringing the best in many. The American Republican party is now a “socialist party” and Democrats are worried that Republicans are pushing big governments way too fast that Democrats may now look like the old Republicans, known for limited government.
Trump now wants Obamacare badly and is open to offer special windows for enrollment (yes, the law he desired to kill on Day 1). Humans are the same: like the African politicians with no ideology or core belief, pandemic is showing that even the American and Western European politicians are just like them. In the age of austerity and paralysis, it is just about survival with ideological purity sent to museums.
Last week, Republicans joined Democrats — and in some cases got in front of them — in calling for direct payments to Americans to help cope with the economic fallout from the pandemic. The Trump administration, after laboring for years to repeal Obamacare, said it was considering creating a special enrollment period for the program due to the coronavirus. When Donald Trump himself suggested the government could take equity stakes in private companies that receive federal aid, it was a Democratic governor, Colorado’s Jared Polis, who accused the president of being a socialist.
“It’s crazy,” said Kelly Dietrich, founder of the National Democratic Training Committee, which trains candidates across the country. “Up is down, north is south.”
[…]
Over the weekend, Republicans and Democrats neared a deal on a rescue package that could cost at least $1.6 trillion, the most expensive such package in U.S. history. Bipartisan support for such a measure has been heralded by Democrats as an endorsement of expansive government intervention — in large part because elements of the spending, including $250 billion in direct payments to Americans, are now a priority of Republicans.
The world is uniting against a common enemy – a very dangerous virus. Our ideological purity can return during peacetime, but right now, for humans, we just want to survive. President Trump does not see being called a “socialist” a bad thing – and I agree with him: “ When Donald Trump himself suggested the government could take equity stakes in private companies that receive federal aid, it was a Democratic governor, Colorado’s Jared Polis, who accused the president of being a socialist.”
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It’s not easy to be in the government, more so, in this trying time. Every step you take, people are ready, waiting with their daggers, to tell you how wrong and clueless you are. It’s left for you to choose who to listen to, because there’s no right approach or answer.
The Dems will always go opposite of whatever Trump proposes, or at least too far, just to make him look worse anyway. It’s the typical Washington Establishment machine, no one should be swayed by whatever either of the parties say; it’s all about competing to look good in the eyes of the voters, irrespective of how senseless the proposals are.
The way you govern in peacetime is not same as in wartime, desperate times often lead to desperate measures, and reason usually go on holiday during those periods.
It’s all about temporary relief, the government cannot codify these measures and make them permanent, it will surely collapse, if it tries so.
You can always accuse the government of not doing enough, as long as there’s crisis, because it is never easy to be calm in the face of frustration and panic.
Things always look easier, as long as you are on the sidelines, but put the person there to direct the affairs; they now realise how complicated it is…