We’ve been had. For forty years, Republicans have been telling us that government is the problem and that it is too incompetent to provide vital services. The free market, they told us, is the best vehicle to get the greatest benefit to the most people. Government is too clumsy and bureaucratic to do important work. Consequently, too much of the country looked away while Donald Trump left key positions unfilled or hired political lackies, sycophants and grifters to do jobs that provide important functions but get little notice. 

Mitch McConnell and Republican Senators like Thom Tillis and Lindsey Graham defended the president against any criticism and stood by while he ransacked the federal government. When the pandemic hit and workers lost their jobs, they insisted that funds go directly to companies, not families. While trillions of dollars go to prop up corporations, real Americans get one $1,200 check—and the administration is too incompetent to get those out in a timely manner. The stock market just had its best month in more than 30 years while 30 million Americans lost their jobs. Something is clearly wrong.

Governors are taking the brunt of the impact. They are trying to control the spread of the virus to protect health care systems and the health of their citizens. They need economic support and a national plan that has never materialized. The federal government’s approach to the pandemic has been an utter failure. The call to reopen the country is really a response to that ineptitude and ignores the success many states have had in curbing the spread of the disease. 

In North Carolina, businesses and counties are pushing back against Governor Roy Cooper’s orders to keep non-essential businesses closed. In Gaston County, the board of commissioners says they will support businesses that defy the order. In Apex, a tattoo parlor owner opened and got arrested. Conservatives are trying to paint this as a political fight against the heavy hand of big government. In reality, it’s the failure of the Trump administration to protect both our economic welfare and health of our citizens. 

The statement from the tattoo parlor owner says it all. He applied thirteen times for small business relief funds and it never came. That’s the fault of Trump’s Small Business Administration, not Roy Cooper. The money that should have been going to shops like his went to big businesses like Ruth’s Chris Steak House. The funds from the first relief package ran out in a matter of days. The funds in the second package ran out in just hours.  

Like the United States, Germany also shuttered most of its businesses. But instead of funneling money directly to corporations, the government “provides up to two-thirds of workers’ wages so companies can avoid layoffs.” Republicans would call that socialism. I call it good government. While we’re suffering from double-digit unemployment, Germany’s unemployment rate is largely unchanged. They will come out of the pandemic with far fewer casualties and their economy will recover considerably faster. Germany has shown us the fallacy of free market idealism and the success of a strong government response.

Government is only as competent as the people who run it. The free marketeers who drive the GOP have insisted on putting ill-qualified political appointees into positions that require experienced and adept administrators because they’ve deluded themselves into believing government can’t do anything well. We saw it during Katrina with “Hekuva Job, Brownie” and we see today. It’s why they support Trump. In both cases, people literally lost their lives because of the cynical approach Republicans bring to running the country. Now, we’ll suffer an unnecessarily prolonged economic recovery because Republicans put more faith in corporations and the market than they do the American people.