By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The right mouth of government obviously has no idea what the left mouth is saying. And because government can’t get its message straight, we’re all confused.
On one hand, Gov. Henry McMaster says some businesses can now open in South Carolina, although it’s no clearer why a craft shop or a florist is “essential” in the curious way a gun shop has been for the last few weeks. Grocery stores we understand. But gun shops?
Meanwhile, the governor says no to opening schools (good idea, finally). But wait: It’s also OK suddenly to go to boat landings, some beaches and, soon, state parks. Yet people are still being told by state and national officials to stay at home, stay separated, maintain social distance and to not congregate.
What the hell?
None of this doubletalk makes much sense. As one local official stated what’s pitifully obvious, it’s not “intelligent or coherent by any means.”
The coronavirus crisis certainly is nothing we’ve ever seen and no one seems to have been prepared for it. So maybe all of the confusion just stems from all of the politicians making it up as they go along.
With McMaster, the best we can figure is he is highly attuned to whether there is even a hint of “liberating” South Carolina while he’s in charge. In fact, his ears appear to be closer to right wingers at home than to how his nose has been firmly stuck to the backside of his buddy, President Donald Trump, star performer and daily media briefer who is using the coronavirus crisis to feather the nest of his gargantuan narcissism.
Trump is the worst of the double talkers. He started the week of April 13 by bombastically asserting he had ultimate authority on when the nation should reopen for business in light of coronavirus. Four days later, he backed down when he said the nation’s governors were responsible for when and how individual states should get back to business. Maybe he was off his meds.
But the next day, April 17, he was back, red-faced and vitriolic, acting like no American president in history. After reading reports of his previous day’s capitulation, Trump lashed out, encouraging right-wing protesters to “liberate” Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia, three states with Democratic governors, from coronavirus regimens put in place to protect people. And this led to national headlines about how he was inciting resistance against governors.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, reacted with much frost to Trump’s flip-flop. “The president is fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies even while his own administration says the virus is real and is deadly, and that we have a long way to go before restrictions can be lifted,” he said.
Anyone familiar with the president’s ongoing lies and pandering should have seen his turnabout coming from 10 miles away. Repeatedly during this crisis of monstrous proportions, he’s done only one real thing consistently: He’s displayed a continuing lack of leadership. Rather than set reasonable courses of action, he wings it in daily briefings better left to scientists. Rather than soothe the nation, he incites red against blue when the disease doesn’t care which political party the next victim belongs to.
All of this doubletalk is just plain confusing. It doesn’t help that some in the media are part of the problem. Fox News is little more than a national network of propaganda that disseminates unrest over stories about how people are coping. And locally, some South Carolina television stations interrupt local news broadcasts to showcase the president’s press conferences, also known as unpaid campaign commercials.
South Carolina and national leaders need to start listening to scientists. They need to make sure what they do is best for everyone suffering in social isolation and in the pandemic. Yes, we need businesses to reopen. But not until it’s safe to do so.
Thank goodness for leadership by the nation’s scientists and doctors. They’re proving to be the real heroes of the coronavirus crisis. In the days ahead, do what you can to thank health care professionals, first responders and frontline public servants working to keep our communities safe. They need more love than they’re getting.
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
Thank you for being a voice of reason in this irrational state climate.
Governor McMaster appoints a bunch of businesspeople to the accelerateSC Task Force. Sprinkle in some pols and too few scientists to plot the opening up of our economy. COVID-19 continues to circulate indicated by the steady upward trajectory of new cases. In SC the containment policy is failing as the curve is unbending. Guess we can ignore the obvious. COVID-19 is spreading. SC is starting from a lower point. Unchanged the policy will catch up with ever expanding cases.
McMaster drops the accelerateSC Task Force not hard to miss hint. McMaster wants the economy humming by the end of May. This explains why there is no science here. The health consequences are not important to McMaster. Then he insults the task force saying he does not have to accept their recommendations.
So why bother to serve if you work is meaningless? Will the task force bake a quarter to half a loaf of what will provide workplace safety? Spend less time digging and asking questions? Or cover over their embarrassment for agreeing to serve in other ways. A few might leave. How do the members find meaningfulness in their work that does not matter to our Governor? What is a responsible executive-business leader to do, serving on this charade accelerateSC committee? accelerateSC will matter to all the people on SC if they chose. Here is how.
Hit the hard ball out of the park. Disregard all the input from the McMaster staff of cronies appointed as your handlers. Reject their spoon feeding. Protect you scope authorities. Find out from one another and MUSC disease experts the science facts. Tell us the disease side of the equation and issue the Phase 1 report. Lay out for all the COVID-19 knowns and unknowns to understand and how they relate to the different types of businesses in SC. Start with agriculture, extractive industries, then logistics, then manufacturing for export and so on through the sectors.
Move on to Phase 2 and lay out how to bring the SC economy back sector by sector. Speak to the truth found in Phase 1 as best you can understand it. What must we do. Thank to gov for his interest. Let him do with you fine work what he may. You will have been faithful to the people of SC and you own sense of duty. The scaredness of life under attack by COVID-19 is protected. So is our economy.
The opening question accelerateSC will need to grapple with is the sham of “essential business.”McMaster’s confused work-home policy in SC that classified “essential” by the type of business that are not essential. This results in a muddled public health policy. The type of business used as a basis for exemption misclassifies those that are essential for maintaining all those sheltering in place. Loose terms do not staunch the rate of infection nor protect the economy. If you need data check the SCDOT videos. The reason why we stay home- to reduce human interactions. The spread of the coronavirus is by touch or droplets. Far too many employees are free to interact with McMaster’s essential business policy and missing workplace standards and safe practices unwritten. Uneven application of safe containment practices in the workplace results.
The individual employees that sustain the sheltering population needs exemption. The test from the stay home exemption needs a direct link to the resident population’s health needs as they stay home. The essential employee provides services that if not done will damage the health and well-being of sheltering SC residents. Retail food employees, hospital orderlies, bus drivers, and many others in low-wage jobs become essential. There is no pay increase. At least we applauded them for taking their risks in our behalf.
The exemption policy error is that a characteristic of the entity transfers to all the employees. This is an error in logic known as the ecological fallacy. McMaster is not the first person confused in this way. Andy Brack spoke to it in DC. This easily happens when the type of business is the only elemet of a policy framework. Far too many employees are released to spread the virus. That is why the caseload rise is saying if we want to listen.
It is great to read someone speaking the truth in SC!