Like most history nerds, I have a regular rotation of history podcasts I listen to. One of the best Historian pod-casters in the business, and a regular of my rotation, is Mike Duncan. Duncan is a best selling author, his best selling book being about the collapse of the Roman Republic, leading into Julius Caesar, in the first century B.C.E.. Something he has been regularly tweeting struck a chord with me today as the GOP leadership in Congress, McCarthy in the House and McConnell in the Senate, came out with their “line in the sand” for the next negotiations leading up to another bill to help Americans get through the pandemic. Duncan’s words are “The health crisis is a political crisis and the political crisis is a health crisis.” The words of the GOP leadership in congress make Duncan’s unsettling words reality.
I have been writing this blog in my head for the better part of 15 years. Today is the catalyst for it. Below is an image from the publication POLITCO with statements from McCarthy and McConnell on employer liability for workers returning to work during the pandemic
At first glance, this may not seem too controversial. It may look like they are trying to protect essential workers from liability. This assumption is incorrect. What this is, is protections for business owners from being sued by employees for being forced to work while risking contracting a deadly illness.
Imagine for a second, and you may not even have to imagine, that you work as an employee for a company that had to close operations due to the pandemic. Your typical day would have consisted of a long commute using public transportation with thousands of other people then sitting in an office or working at a factory with hundreds of other people and/or clients. During the pandemic, you are either working from home, still making a paycheck, or you are relying on unemployment. Less than ideal for you an your family and your employers business, but you are safe, taking precautions to keep you and your family healthy. What McConnell and McCarthy want to do, is tell you employer its OK to open during the pandemic and just risk your employees getting the disease. Your employer needs to make rent and fix the bottom line so they re-open and you are forced to go to back to work. You are forced because your job is back, unemployment is not an option. Your binary choice is either risk sickness/death in order to get a paycheck to support your family or, lose your job along with any benefits and not know where your next meal is going to come from. Also, if you do get sick, forget any legal recourse you have to hold an employer accountable for making you show up during a pandemic, perform your job without proper PPE to prevent the disease, or make any adjustments to working conditions to prevent the spread.
This is where the overlap between the political crisis and the health crisis exists. This is where the GOP and late stage capitalism have been taking us for the better part of 40 years. Essential employees are already going through this to an extent, hence the reason for the comments from the GOP leaders. This week, a Tyson pork plant in Indiana had almost 900 workers test positive for COVID-19. Additionally, the President called on the Defense Production Act to keep open the meatpacking industry. The supply line of food is obviously essential, but essential enough to risk the deaths of employees working in conditions where there is very limited sanitation and social distancing? How many meat plants will end up like the Tyson one in Indiana? Even if you allow the workers to be litigious, does it matter if they are sick and dying?
These are questions that should make everyone reconsider their own beliefs. The pandemic has brought out the absolute worst in the Republican Party. Even this threat to prohibit litigation is purely politics. The GOP knows this won’t be liked. This is simply the party of cynicism in action. They will use this against the democrats in order to get them to remove things form the bill that actually will help people like, arguably the most important part of the next bill, universal vote by mail.
This should be sickening to everyone. It should be eye-opening to everyone. Let me make it clear, and as frank as I can. The Republican Party does not care if you live or die. They only care about protecting corporate america. They work in tandem with these large corporations to enrich themselves, securing their ability to be re-elected, while giving outrageous tax cuts to the corporations. They don’t care about your uncle that runs his own contracting company, nor do they care about your cousin who opened up her own cafe. They care about the deposit from the Koch brothers or how their own share holdings are doing. In the summer of 2008, they secured a bailout for the all the banks and lending companies that were preying on consumers with predatory loans and forced the collapse of the market. When the White Changed parties shortly after, the federal deficit existed all of a sudden. They are not “pro-life.” They never have been “pro-life.” They are war mongers, who sent my generation to die in the Middle East. They care more about a cluster of cells inside the uterus of a woman they will never meet than they do about minorities and minimum wage workers. “All lives matter” should be heard for the hollow phrase it is. Clearly they would rather have you risking your life for Tyson chicken’s bottom line than you surviving. They don’t care about unions or collective bargaining rights. They squashed that with their “Right to Work” act and after 9/11 when TSA employees weren’t given those rights, rights being fought for them by the democratic party. They are not the party of the blue collar worker. They have done nothing but act against blue collar workers for my entire life. They are the party of hypocrisy, corporate welfare, and fear.
The thin red line McConnell and McCarthy are drawing in the sand over the next bill is drawn with the blood of American workers who are being forced to work in unsafe conditions during the pandemic. If you haven’t broken with the GOP and you aren’t sitting on the board of a major financial institution or energy company, you are working against your own self interest. There’s a reason why “life” was before “property” in the Declaration of Independence. We only get one. The GOP would have you believe that your life is worth giving up so corporations can keep making money of chickens.
As next round of negotiations happen, take note of which people in our government are looking out for the one life you have to live. Take note of the ones who are trying to secure protections for average working people like you. Take note of who wants to help you keep the lights on and put food on your table. We are living through the single biggest global shake-up since 1945. Whether you like it or not, the pandemic is a political crisis as well. During times like this, power is always in flux. The American story is about to change. The story of the last 75 years, the last 30 years, is closing. Who in Congress is telling the story of how you want America to come out of this? it’s happening right now. Pay Attention.
Thank you for reading for the sake of Democracy
P.S. Mike Duncan went on another one of my favorite podcasts, Tides of History, to discuss how the pandemic is linked to political and social changes of the last 20 years. Give it a listen here: https://wondery.com/shows/tides-of-history/#
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