Jon Margolis is a political columnist for VTDigger.
You know what they say. It’s an ill wind that blows no good for anyone.
So cheer up. In these parlous times of social distancing, vigorous hand-washing, self-quarantining, and constant worry, there are compensations for being alive at this moment.
It’s a moment. You are living in a unique and identifiable epoch: the era of social distancing, the age of sportslessness, the period of panicky purchasing, the time of torpor.
And you know it. People walking around Florence in 1525 were not aware they were living in the Renaissance. Nor did Parisians 200 years later have any idea that they were part of the Age of Reason.
But we all know we are living in the COVID-19 era. It will (one hopes) be brief, but memorable. Nothing quite like it has ever happened before. Earlier shocks (Pearl Harbor, 9/11) were sudden, immediate, localized. This disease and the economic disaster it creates are everywhere, and they linger.
So savor the moment. Think of the tales you’ll have to tell your grandchildren.
Assuming the virus doesn’t kill you.
There were earlier pandemics, the deadliest being the so-called.
“Spanish Flu” (there was nothing Spanish about it). But that was more than 100 years ago, and not as noticeable. It came in the midst of a terrible war, and when people were dying of other diseases like dengue, cholera and typhoid, which have been all but eliminated in the United States.
See. Some things are better.
But COVID-19 is not the only unique feature of the now. The pandemic revealed what had heretofore only been suspected: that you are also living during the years of the most incompetent federal government in American history.
The most incompetent does not mean the worst. This government pursues policies many people favor. In that sense, it’s doing its job. Corruption may have been more widespread under Presidents Grant and Harding. Arguably the worst decision any U.S. government made was to go to war in Iraq in 2003.
And we’ll always have Richard Nixon.
But for sheer ineptitude and dysfunctionality, no earlier administration comes close. In its first three years, Donald Trump’s administration had more acting cabinet secretaries (28) than Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did in their combined 16 years in office. A new report from the Brookings Institution shows that the staff turnover under Trump has been “higher than the 5 most recent presidents,” and that people holding 82% of “the most influential positions within the executive office of the president” have quit or been fired so far.
But you know what they say. It’s an ill wind that blows no good for anyone. An incompetent government serves the useful purpose of reminding everyone of the importance of a competent government.
Competent government is why you won’t know anyone who gets dengue, typhoid or typhus.
Yes, even a competent government is a pain in the neck. As was noted years ago, “eternal vigilance” is required to make sure it does not abuse its power. Still, as this crisis illustrates, in the modern world a minimally competent government is necessary, and not just in a crisis.
Consider the example of Ronald Reagan, who may have proclaimed that “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem,” but who governed capably, both as governor of California and as president. He appointed experienced, skilled executives and technocrats, most of whom believed in doing their jobs.
Well, maybe not everyone in the realm of natural resource policy (Interior Department, Forest Service, EPA). But Reagan’s diplomats practiced diplomacy. Most of his business and financial appointees were mainstream economists. His regulators regulated – gently, with a pro-business tilt, but in accordance with law and policy. That’s because all of them, starting with Reagan, understood that a functioning economy and a functioning society needs government that acts in accordance with law and policy.
And perhaps a society that understands how central law and policy have always been, another potential bright spot amidst the fear and boredom of sheltering in place. Because you know what they say. It’s an ill wind that blows no good for anyone, and this wind will blow some good if it reminds people of how interwoven, consolidated and standardized the world is these days, a degree of interdependence that requires competent government.
Americans especially tend to believe that what happens just happens, thanks to individual choices and the workings of a free market. There are individuals who make choices. There is a market. But they all operate within systems (many of them) which are impersonal, institutional, remote.
A few people, including a handful of Vermonters, raise and grow their own food. Good for them. The other 99.8% of us eat thanks to a combination of intricately intertwined networks, many created by law and subsidized by government, thanks to which food is produced, shipped and sold, all with some guarantee that eating it won’t make us sick.
As with food, so with shelter and transportation. The individually owned house and the individually driven car are owned and driven only because elaborate public and private systems of finance, construction and regulation so allow. It’s fashionable in some circles to complain about “social engineering.” It’s an engineered society. We have to accept that.
It shouldn’t take a pandemic to illustrate this basic fact of modern life. But if it does, there’s one silver lining in the current cloud of social disruption.
If not, this has been a very ill wind indeed.
