Donald Trump and his allies desperately want people to believe there’s a conflict between saving lives and saving the economy. In Trump’s daily propaganda dump disguised as a “coronavirus briefing,” the runner-up in the 2016 popular vote spends much of his time fantasizing about how he will soon “reopen” the economy and hinting that governors have overreached by instituting mandatory lockdowns to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. Republican politicians are assisting Trump is promoting this vapid dichotomy, demanding congressional investigations into the shutdowns and claiming that letting people die is a reasonable price to pay for (supposedly) rescuing the economy.
This effort at pitting lives against jobs is bolstered, of course, by Fox News and other right-wing pundits, who are hyping the idea that we need to let the coronavirus run rampant through the country in order to save the economy. Over the past week, right-wing astroturf groups linked to the DeVos family and other big donors have staged anti-lockdown protests, aimed at reinforcing this economy vs. lives framework. Trump and Fox News unsurprisingly jumped in, cheering on the protesters and using these tiny groups of knuckleheads as evidence that the country must make a stark choice.
Spoiler alert: This “choice” between saving lives and saving the economy is a false dichotomy. In fact, it isn’t a choice at all. You can’t do one without the other. Continue reading.