The OHA reported yesterday that 19 Oregonians over age 60 died of Covid. These numbers are not broken out by occupation, but statistically one of these people is or was a teacher. (“Education” as a broader category that includes teachers employs 5.6% in Oregon.)
So maybe it’s only the other 18 lives that Gov. Brown is willing to sacrifice in the name of helping the kids or whatever slogan her branding committee (and yes, they have branding meetings about most state initiatives) comes up with.
There are things worth dying for. I absolutely believe that. Getting in a few weeks of in-person classes during a failed school year is not one of those things. I would not trade my life for that and I cannot imagine asking anyone else to do so. I do not understand the moral reasoning of someone who thinks otherwise.
I remember in the 1990s when the Republican Party became unmoored from its governing philosophy. (You can argue that this happened earlier, but there was a philosophy earlier even if they didn’t necessarily follow it.) This decoupling led us to Trump and the latest election cycle where the GOP couldn’t even produce a platform, a document describing what they believe in.
A similar danger exists now for the Democratic Party. It’s not, however, that their governing philosophy doesn’t exist. It has a philosophy, and this sacrifice of seniors lives is part of it. That’s not to say they have a plank that says, “We will kill seniors.” But it is to say that they have goals, ideals, or values that have led them to this morally indefensible place, and those will be articulated in a party platform. This should, but probably won’t, be a cause for great introspection.
Some 74.2 million people voted for Trump in the United States. It’s not like they were all nutters (even if a sizable portion were). There are some very real problems in the Democratic Party as well.
In Oregon, the GOP just condemned their own Republican US House members who voted to impeach Trump. The Oregon GOP is predominately full of nutters.
But if I’m a senior citizen voting for our next governor, am I voting for the nutters or the party that was willing to put my life in mortal danger so kids could have a few weeks of in-person school?