10 sats \ 4 replies \ @oliverweiss 15h \ parent \ on: The Peculiar Phenomenon of Libertarians Supporting Donald Trump(Reason Magazine) Politics_And_Law
Trump was lucky that he was replaced by Biden. Otherwise you would have written it differently.
Its not as clear cut as these two parties like to make it. Trump was terrible on Covid. During his term most Republicans were bad as well. However, they were not the same as the Democrats. An issue that should not have been political became political became political. Who knows what Trump would have done if he had remained in office. Its hard for me to believe he would have been as insane as Biden though.
The thing is, this is all a trap. Get people arguing about which team did better or worse instead of understanding the policies and logical flaws in both. Both desire to increase their power and their perceived need. Its really a dumpster fire.
reply
It's pretty clear cut to me. I can't envision a world in which Democrats were less authoritarian on COVID. For one simple reason: Democrats align themselves more with academia while Republicans align themselves more with small business. Small business more than anyone had the incentive to stop the lockdowns, whereas the medical establishment had multiple layers of incentives (including from Fauci's personal entanglements) to perpetuate the Covid myth.
As for Republicans being bad on Covid at first, everyone was pretty much on board with the authoritarianism at first, because we weren't sure what we were dealing with. "Two weeks to stop the spread," is what we were sold and most people were willing to put up with that.
But two weeks turned into years; even as data was coming out that Covid wasn't dangerous except maybe for the elderly. Moreover, the George Floyd protests showed that 1) Covid wasn't that dangerous; 2) lockdowns were being selectively enforced.
I'm not saying Republicans aren't also authoritarians. I just think that on Covid, specifically, it was pretty clear cut to me the differences between the parties. And since Covid brought about the most egregious violations of liberty we've seen since 9/11, it makes sense that libertarian leaning people harbor distrust towards Democrats.
reply
"Two weeks to stop the spread," is what we were sold
The narrative pushed forward by Trump himself, then it should be over by Easter when it gets warmer, then definitely by summer, then… he was replaced.
But, of course, I agree with @kepford, we don’t know
what Trump would have done if he had remained in office.
reply