Is It Time for Grandma to Go?

From Wikimedia Commons.
19th Century portrait.

My stocks have taken a hit. Is it time for Glenn Beck to die?

Yeah, I know, he’s not grandma. But the same Republicans who got the vapors 10 years ago over imaginary “death panels” taking your grandmother when the Affordable Care Act was being passed are now ready for Coronavirus to take her in order to aid the economy.

The president is not wrong to say that the cure should not be worse than the disease—and no doubt this social distancing thing is incredibly damaging to the economy. But the economy is not everything. And medical experts are all telling us that the pandemic is real and the only way to fight a new virus that nobody has immunity to is to stop human-to-human transmission by social distancing.

So, no, it would not be beautiful to fill the churches for Easter. Flattening the curve does not mean bringing everybody together to celebrate resurrection by exchanging a new virus in ill-advised public gatherings. Yes, prayer is powerful. No, it’s not worth sacrificing grandma for. It feels like a very weird reenactment of The Lottery.

The tradeoff is magical thinking from a president whose grip on reality has always been iffy. He’s taking his cue from the same right-wing nutjobs who have whispered crazy stuff in his ears for three years. We desperately need fact-based leadership. A president who will understand what doctors report and not spout nonsense.

That’s not what we have.

And yes, a depression would be a high price, something that I hope we can avoid. But no, I don’t trust Glenn Beck on this false dilemma. I don’t think the only choices are tank the economy or sacrifice grandma. The problem is that I don’t think the president can grasp that. That’s not what Glenn is whispering in his ear.

If you’re listening to Trump and Beck at this point, your perceptions of reality have nothing to do with the marketplace of ideas—you are hopelessly lost in the mall of BS.