If you’re listening to politicians, you hear them sing bipartisan praise for the heroes who march bravely into the viral storm every day. They constantly eulogize doctors and nurses, cops and firefighters, but also those who maintain essential services amid the coronavirus catastrophe — from grocery clerks to delivery drivers to sanitation workers, train conductors and traffic engineers. Suddenly, we have all realized that those good people, whose thankless toil we took for granted, deserve our gratitude and respect.
Or so it seemed until Mitch McConnell opened his mouth and proved that, to him at least, those civic accolades mean nothing.
When the Senate majority leader told a right-wing radio host this week that he opposes any further federal aid to states and localities, encouraging them to seek bankruptcy protection instead, his message could not have been clearer. As far as McConnell is concerned, every city and town in America devastated by the coronavirus, and every state that will be, should simply drop dead — and so should its heroic employees. His sneering reference to “blue state bailouts” piled demagogic insult onto the grave injury he means to inflict. Continue reading.