FACED WITH CORONAVIRUS, AMERICA'S INSTINCT IS LEFTIST POLICY
This editorial is written by Activate CEO Dave Pilmenstein and originally appeared in Medium.
OPINION | The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused fears about American emergency preparedness to spike, especially while citizens cautiously observe the virus’s spread in China, Italy, and South Korea. Meanwhile, the economy has come to a near-standstill. An increasing number of governors have implemented state executive orders to bar social gatherings, mandate sheltering in place, and require non-essential business closure; such policies are becoming more prevalent as the virus spreads from major hub cities into less populated rural areas. The stock boom has lurched to a halt, and even the major banks — usually the last-standing poker faces of market confidence — are predicting a major recession in the second quarter of the year. Some are even forecasting a cut of nearly 30% in GDP.
As we venture into uncharted territory together, we’re left to answer the question: what will a fundamentally capitalist nation do to take care of its citizens when their needs as people take priority over their value as consumers?
The new global paradigm has kicked off a partial, but rapid, economic and political realignment toward collectivist (a scary word, if you’re Ayn Rand) programs. Elected officials are now rushing to adopt unprecedented big-government, borderline-socialist measures including, but not limited to: leveraging the Defense Production Act to mandate “wartime” fabrication of goods (e.g. masks and ventilators); no-fee disease testing subsidized by the state; federal and state job programs aimed at the recently unemployed; direct, basic income-style emergency payments to individuals; moratoriums on mortgage payments, student loan payments, evictions, and utility shutoffs.
Federal-level Republicans, once a bulwark of by-the-bootstraps, free market, anti-deficit-spending ideology, now find themselves at the levers of power and at the whim of President Trump — and with that power, at that whim, they find themselves supporting baby versions of universal basic income (Mitt Romney, of all people!), debt cancellation, and universal healthcare, albeit still limited in scope and never without ruthless corporatist caveat. Federal Democrats, in control of only the House of Representatives, have been largely playing pro-worker watchdog, much like a Labour shadow government would be used to doing in the United Kingdom. They have been calling out their counterparts whenever they get the sense that bailouts are being crafted without provisions against stock buybacks, excessive executive pay, and other forms of revolving-door patronage, and are attempting to pass improved versions of relief under the leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
While the fine print gets hammered out and the late-night tension heats up, the American people are desperate for relief — and quick.
Radical acceptance of the current situation has exposed what many have long suspected: that the American population will accept politically-left, more socialist-leaning policies, also known using the means of production for the public benefit and under more public control, in times of hardship. The difference this time, though, is that the hardship is shared, immediate, and of unprecedented magnitude — and it has put our entire society on hold. This shared hardship has revealed the sheer number of Americans who need help in times of emergency, but the key is that for the first time, the scale and frequency of the problem is raising collective consciousness about what one’s neighbors go through every day.
The American people are seeing more than ever how their neighbors regularly grapple with pneumonia, the flu, a sinus infection, or the common cold — and understand the imperative of paid sick leave instead of going into public places, particularly those involved in food preparation, while sick. They see a $34,000 coronavirus medical bill and suddenly feel what it’s like to make a dollar too much to qualify for Medicaid. They are seeing financial markets collapsing — and know deep down that for the 45% of Americans who don’t report owning stocks and the 78% who live paycheck to paycheck (81% of women), their lives have teetered on edge of the same financial cliff for years while largely ignored by their government, the media, and often, those in closest proximity. The furloughed car salesperson or graphic designer is the new part-time server; new categories of worker are discovering what it means to not work, not earn, and find benefits in jeopardy. Americans unable to participate in the economy for the first time are becoming quickly and painfully aware that for those next door, this has been happening for decades.
So the nation will have to decide if it will take another disaster wiping out many thousands of lives, careers, and retirement accounts before it can truly reap the benefits of public assets; if America wants to avoid a repeat of the calamity unfolding before its very eyes, there are already plenty of great ideas on the table and in practice. We are seeing ideological seeds planted in the soil of reality, and the messy, pragmatic genesis of proposals like single-payer Medicare for All or the public option, universal basic income (UBI), mass debt cancellation, and federal and state jobs guarantees — all ideas that as recently as a few weeks ago were laughed off as “pie-in-the-sky.”
Such big-government policies are themselves popular with a majority of the American people — and would stimulate the economy with money velocity yet-unseen — but cultural and systemic barriers remain. The manufactured “American exceptionalist” attitude of entrepreneurial, pro-austerity individualism has caused these initiatives to fall by the wayside — particularly when coupled with Washington’s endless revolving door of pro-corporate legislative footsoldiers, private capital interests, and lobbyist armies to connect the two. When the global pandemic finally blows over, whether that comes in weeks or months, there will be a cultural vacuum left over and a mutually beneficial, easy-to-understand blueprint for the way forward; the only missing piece will be the political coalition that can bring a better future to fruition.
