At City Journal Erica Sandberg catalogues a list of affronts by elected officials in California which are raising the hackles of at least a certain portion of the population of the Golden State. It includes those by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, city supervisors, and district attorneys. It’s pretty clear that the restrictions “for thee, but not for me” attitude displayed are not isolated examples.
The following videos also tell a story:
I by no means endorse the attitudes expressed in those videos but I believe in good government and it’s pretty clear that California does not have it.
Good to know that the medical community is supposedly so divided. I dont agree with a number of decisions being made, but there are difficult. I guess I could also take the complaints about hypocrisy a bit more seriously if the people making them weren’t supporting the hypocrite in chief. Rather than trying to justify what you are doing by claiming someone is a hypocrite (surely this is a fallacy of some sort?) figure out what is right and do it. justify your actions based upon the merits, not because someone hurt your feelings. AS I said before bad leadership, and there is a lot of it, doesnt justify stupidity.
Steve
I will add a twist; which states have had good government during the pandemic?
I propose an objective benchmark; which is a lower rate of death per capita then Canada, which has a similar culture, federal system, somewhat similar demographics.
Based on that, you get Utah, Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii, Maine. Vermont.
Any proposal on a benchmark on mitigating the non-direct impacts of COVID (economic, mental health, etc)?
Not to put too fine a point on it but those are among the states with the lowest percentage of black population.
Alaska has a high percentage of Native Americans, Hawaii has a high percentage of Pacific Islanders — both vulnerable populations.
Basically, the outcomes support what I’ve been saying—that they’re more dependent on location, environment, and population than on policy or behavior. Hawaii is tropical—lots of sunlight, natural ventilation, and humidity. In Alaska “the villages” (as they call the areas in which most of the indigenous people live) are quite isolated and most of the population, indigenous or otherwise, is isolated.