Thread by @truthdogg

The disbanding of the pandemic task force wasn’t a mistake, it was an ideological choice to NOT be prepared, and to let nature take its course.

For American conservatives, if we die from a natural disaster or from a natural cause, it’s our fault anyway.
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To them, the invisible hand of the market, of nature, or of God, will take care of us, and - like wearing seatbelts, locking up guns, reducing emissions - any other attempts to protect Americans are useless.
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This response is a Trump failing, of course, but more than that it’s a Republican and Conservative failing.

US conservatives are so afraid of communism that they long ago abandoned all ideas of community as well.
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In their world, we are all on our own. A pandemic task force, like national health insurance or a functional and professional FEMA, is anathema to the conservative political view of individual control.
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So, for decades, Dems build safety structures & Repubs tear them down, expecting local communities, churches & private corporations to step in. (note how Marco Rubio was praising that this AM)

This is not a failure of preparedness.

It is a failure of ideology.

5/5

PS- For a lot of conservatives, like Rubio, it’s not even a failure, it’s a demonstration of success.

Since they see a moral imperative in convincing Anericans not to rely on the feds for help, this is exactly how they believe the US should be responding.

PS2- the weird thing to watch right now is that Trump either doesn’t understand his own administration’s ideology, or he knows it would be unpopular to admit it, so we get press conferences like the ones we’ve had this week. He wants to look decisive while doing nothing at all.

PS3- In that sense, Trump is a typical Republican:

Do nothing to help regular ppl, but use crises as opportunities to shift reliance to churches & corporations, increase executive power, and cut social services, all while trying to sound tough.