When Pigs Began to Fly
or:
How Republicans Learned to Love Government Bailouts
The most animistic trait we still have as humans, one that has been carried on over
from our ancestors for hundreds of years, is panicking. Panicking for us, just as it
exists in animals, causes us such great anxiety and fear that it just overrides everything
we’ve learned and been taught how to do, no matter how sound and logical it might be, a
trait that has come out a lot recently during this pandemic. Instead of heeding the advice of
experts like Dr. Fauci who told us this virus wasn’t going to just be like the flu, we laughed
him off and went back to living our lives. And when it did turn out to be worse than the flu
and everything seemed to be collapsing around us, instead of just going to the store and
buying what we needed before calmly heading home to shelter and wait it out, we panicked.
Story after story came out about people buying up literally dozens of toilet paper packages
while the food they would need to eat to make it worthwhile sat on the shelves, or pillaging
the CVS for gallons of hand sanitizer and soap that they would never get through even if
the world really did end. In the end, the mass buyups of necessary medical equipment for
people who, if they just heeded the advice of the government, would be fine has led to acute
and fatal shortages for first responders like doctors and nurses. The people working day
and night to ensure we all make it out of this alright have been forced to do things like
share masks or wear the same one for the entire day, or go without having disinfectant
after treating a patient because their stores are running so dangerously low, something
that has caused widespread anger and resulted in many pissed off op ed pieces from t
hose trying to fight the pandemic. The fact that after those articles comes out and
people started organizing “hospital appreciation hours” where they clapped on their
balconies to show their solidarity for the nurses and doctors while the supplies that
could actually help them lies greedily hidden away in a closet somewhere is the cherry
that tops this sundae of irony. Unfortunately, the influence of panic on our decision making
skills has not only affected hospitals and their supplies. It also has managed to slink it’s
way into our government with the monstrosity that is the Trump bailout. Although this might
seem crazy right now, Republicans used to not be fans of huge governmental intervention
into the “free” market and in fact were pretty against it.
Crazy huh? But, let's see how we got here first
from our ancestors for hundreds of years, is panicking. Panicking for us, just as it
exists in animals, causes us such great anxiety and fear that it just overrides everything
we’ve learned and been taught how to do, no matter how sound and logical it might be, a
trait that has come out a lot recently during this pandemic. Instead of heeding the advice of
experts like Dr. Fauci who told us this virus wasn’t going to just be like the flu, we laughed
him off and went back to living our lives. And when it did turn out to be worse than the flu
and everything seemed to be collapsing around us, instead of just going to the store and
buying what we needed before calmly heading home to shelter and wait it out, we panicked.
Story after story came out about people buying up literally dozens of toilet paper packages
while the food they would need to eat to make it worthwhile sat on the shelves, or pillaging
the CVS for gallons of hand sanitizer and soap that they would never get through even if
the world really did end. In the end, the mass buyups of necessary medical equipment for
people who, if they just heeded the advice of the government, would be fine has led to acute
and fatal shortages for first responders like doctors and nurses. The people working day
and night to ensure we all make it out of this alright have been forced to do things like
share masks or wear the same one for the entire day, or go without having disinfectant
after treating a patient because their stores are running so dangerously low, something
that has caused widespread anger and resulted in many pissed off op ed pieces from t
hose trying to fight the pandemic. The fact that after those articles comes out and
people started organizing “hospital appreciation hours” where they clapped on their
balconies to show their solidarity for the nurses and doctors while the supplies that
could actually help them lies greedily hidden away in a closet somewhere is the cherry
that tops this sundae of irony. Unfortunately, the influence of panic on our decision making
skills has not only affected hospitals and their supplies. It also has managed to slink it’s
way into our government with the monstrosity that is the Trump bailout. Although this might
seem crazy right now, Republicans used to not be fans of huge governmental intervention
into the “free” market and in fact were pretty against it.
Crazy huh? But, let's see how we got here first
In the throes of the Great Recession, the new President Obama signed into the law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which pumped 787 billion dollars into the economy in order to save the jobs that were left and create new ones. Although the Act and President Bush’s TARPA single-handedly staved off economic Armageddon by stopping the collapse of most major banks the entire auto industry and actually made 11 billion dollars in interests rates, far right conservatives painted them as one of the worst travesties to befall America since 9/11. In the run up to the 2010 midterms, the TEA Party (which has nothing to do with the Boston Tea Party and actually stands for Tax Enough Already) and other conservative groups loudly and angrily protested President Obama and the bailouts as a huge waste of governmental money that robbed the American people in a time of need, built up the deficit to historic proportions, and high taxes that they felt were robbing them blind. And that anger showed up on election day. That year represented one of the largest political blowouts that has ever occurred in the history of this nation, with a record number of 63 Democratic representatives losing their jobs, joining 6 of their fellow former senators who also lost their elections. Even President Obama called it a “shellacking”, and that really is the only way to describe it. The majority of these new Republican freshmen though weren’t your average political bunch however. Oh no. These new Republicans taking their seats were arch-conservative libertarians who had only one goal in mind: Find where there is a government, and then destroy it. They called for slashing social programs to the floor, writing tax codes so flagrantly beneficial to the rich that the wealthy would surely jump start the economy, and once and for all slashing all the red tape that made up the bureaucratic system. In all, these aren’t all together controversial positions. Generally, Americans oppose the idea of a huge government and many support cutting down on red tape and wastefulness, but it was the tenacity to which these new Tea Party and Freedom Caucus (the congressional arm of the Tea Party) members defended their disbelief. Arch conservatives and full time government protesters like Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Jim Jordan, Tim Scott, Justin Amash, and Mick Mulvaney (all elected in the wake of the bailout) became warriors of an exclusive creed. To them, refusing to equivocate and compromise and always standing by their ideals of small government was the only way forward, even if it meant pissing off the House leadership or going against their party as the budget negotiations in 2011 proved. They stuck to their principles so well that they eventually were able to force out the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, over his refusal to push hard small governmental laws, and became one of the most powerful interest groups in the election to replace him. They were so dedicated they were willing to bully, grandstand, and fight in any way shape and form to get what they want, and they often did. So then, how could men of such principle happily and eagerly back a bailout bigger than the one they hated? Simple: They’re panicking.
They are seeing a world that seemed so fine a couple of weeks ago that Trump said, “there’s nothing to worry about”, come crashing down around them, and with it, their electoral prospects. They thrive off of anger, channeling the hot fury into votes that delivered them the blowout margins needed to convince the Republican leadership that they were the kids to back, finally vindicating them after years in the wilderness, and now that anger seems perfectly ready to boomerang back into their face. There’s no scary Democrat president to point to, nothing to call fake news, no high taxes to promise to cut. All of that has been torn out of their playbook, leaving them running around like the proverbial chickens with their heads cut off. They know Trump must have a strong economy to be re-elected (none before him have ever accomplished the feat except for his hated predecessor), and like rats in a sinking ship are desperately trying to patch the holes before November, hoping most people will just tune out and not pay attention to their scurrying. But the American people have an uncanny ability to remember dishonesty in our politicians (it’s often the first thing most complain about), and this crisis has just exposed how craven the Tea Party is. They will remember them calling for policies they had derided as socialism just months before, a complete reversal on their positions that had supposedly defined their political being. They will remember the scorching attacks on Massie, the only one from the group who actually decided to stick by his principles. They will remember how they promised loudly and proudly to “make America great again” and then led it to its cratering. They will remember all of this and more, the false promises, the lies, the flip flopping, and they will vote on November 3rd to make it right.
- James Earl Miller
Sources:
- https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/troubled-asset-relief-program
- https://www.thebalance.com/tarp-bailout-program-3305895
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections
- https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/meet-the-right-wing-rebels-who-overthrew-john-boehner-73320/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Caucus
- https://reason.com/2020/03/27/massie-and-that-pesky-constitution-hold-up-bailout-bill/
- https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/06/task-mark-meadows-control-crisis-save-presidency-167323
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