It’s back to school time and the pandemic is creating pandemonium. It is going to be a rocky start as school districts deal with anti-mask, anti-vax craziness.
I blame it all on Ronald Reagan.
The affable, B-list, actor-turned-politician is arguably the second most influential president of the 20th century, trailing only FDR. Influence, of course, can be positive or negative. FDR’s influence was positive and St. Ron’s was dreadfully negative.
If my blame-placing seems misplaced or hyperbolic, allow me to fill in the blanks with an admittedly broad-stroked analysis of political history.
FDR’s New Deal opened an era of unprecedented social progress. The philosophical notion of a social contract was translated into bold policy. While intending no detailed historical treatise, New Deal programs included Social Security, labor protections and various other initiatives that emphasized the commitment to collective responsibility and moderated the individual tendencies toward greed and self interest.
Subsequent decades saw progressive tax rates, a strengthening social safety net, the civil rights and voting rights era, including efforts to end racial segregation in education and housing, and continuing development of workers’ rights. Then along came Reagan and it has been steadily downhill ever since.
With a few interim humps, the descending graph line runs straight downhill through the Bush’s “thousand points of light,” the emergence of the Tea Party, the racist resistance to Obama’s very moderate ambitions, finally hitting rock bottom with Trumpism.
One may offer a more arcane analysis, but the history of these 40 years is clear: political rhetoric and policy has championed individualism over collective responsibility; regulation has given way to freedom to exploit; wealth disparity has grown exponentially; schools and neighborhoods have re-segregated; labor rights have been eviscerated; science has been denigrated and defunded; climate change is denied in service of profit; and reason has surrendered to outrageous propaganda and ridiculous religious challenges to evolution and other sound biological and physical principles.
It is precisely this selfish, anti-government, anti-reason iteration of Reaganism that has produced school choice and “reform,” which are really intended toward destruction of the collective in service of “do whatever the hell you want.” (As long as there’s money in it for the “reformers.”)
Reagan’s appeal to rugged individualism is the direct ancestor of today’s angry anti-vax, anti-science, anti-mask freedom fighters. There are, of course, a number of charlatans and opportunistic profiteers who provide “evidence” in support of idiocy, but the impulse toward deciding one’s own truth began with St. Ron.
In my big town/small city outside Boulder, CO, the reopening of schools is a flashpoint in the heated ideological battle between self and society. Groups have banded together on Facebook and homeowner chat boards to rail against school mask mandates as though the Kremlin itself was imposing the policy. In states around the nation, efforts to collectively mask or require vaccination are drawing death threats. In their own festering minds, these folks are the Freedom Fighters of the 21st century. One local poster screamed in ALL CAPS, “YOU WANKERS ARE GOING TO LOSE!!!” Another friendly neighbor suggested that putting a mask on her child was a final step toward totalitarianism. “I value FREEDOM,” she proudly proclaimed. These folks always include a link to a YouTube video or an essay on an obscure website to prove the wisdom of their position. They may not be collectively immune from the coronavirus, but they are uniformly resistant to fact and reason. They will not be told what to do by anyone, damn it.
I don’t believe that their primary objection is to masks or vaccinations. They resent the haughty experts. They are the descendants of St. Ron, and they have been accumulating moral authority in massive quantities from the amoral leaders on the right, like Ted “Cancun” Cruz, Rand “the eye doctor so he should know” Paul, and the serial sociopath in semi-exile at his golf club, who holds sway over his followers, who ironically believe he sets them free.
This particular manifestation of Reaganism is, tragically, really dangerous. If the anti-this, anti-that forces succeed in diluting public health policy, the virus, particularly the clever Delta variant, will slip in through the cracks, infect our children, and lead to a new round of needless and agonizing deaths.
If ever in my lifetime we needed collectivism and solidarity, it is now. But it is probably too late. You can thank Ronald Reagan.