About a month ago, when the United States became the country hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with at least 81,321 confirmed infections and more than 1,000 deaths, Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick was already pushing for the country to get back to work.
During an interview Patrick gave Fox around that time, Tucker Carlson quoted from “a very long and thoughtful” letter Patrick had sent him. “[The virus] could bring about a total economic collapse and potentially the collapse of our society … So I say, let’s give this a few more days or weeks but after that let’s go back to work and go back to living…” Tucker read.
Farther into the interview, Patrick — who is now 70 — said:
And you know Tucker, no one reached out to me and said, ‘As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?’ And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in and that doesn’t make me noble or brave or anything like that.
Some may find Patrick’s offer of self-sacrifice noble or brave.
This octogenarian looks at it differently. In a letter to my local newspaper I wrote:
At first blush, it seems very selfless and commendable that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is ‘all in,’ willing to risk his own life, to keep the economy humming and to return to normal conditions.
There may be other altruistic persons willing to do so. As an octogenarian, if I knew for sure such drastic action would serve my children’s and grandchild’s future, I might consider making a similar offer.
However, while lifting the lifesaving restrictions at this time during this crisis might possibly help reinvigorate the economy a few weeks or months earlier than anticipated, it will certainly risk many, many more lives.
Neither the lieutenant governor nor I have the right to make or promote such a selfish, disastrous decision.
Last Monday, in a return engagement with Tucker Carlson, the Texas Lieutenant Governor doubled down.
I’ll let my good friend Bill Harrison — another octogenarian, tennis partner and a freelance business writer and editor — tell it like it is.
Recalling Patrick’s suggestion that he and other senior citizens might be willing to die to save the economy, Harrison writes:
On Monday night, Patrick stood by his statements in a new interview with Carlson, saying, ‘There are more important things than living, and that’s saving this country for my children, my grandchildren and saving this country for all of us.’ He added, ’We are crushing the country.’
Now I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds vacuous. It makes me want to apologize on behalf of my fellow Texans to all Americans for exposing them to such ludicrous drivel on national television. I am fairly sure it does not represent the thinking of all Texans. Not even of all Republicans.
I think Mr. Patrick has it backward. Our economic situation is not dystopian. We are not seeing women and children starving in the streets. We do not have to sacrifice some old people’s lives for our economy. That is not where we are.
Our grandchildren need grandparents.
Instead of trying to decide who is expendable for economic prosperity, we Americans, rich and poor, should be making every effort we possibly can understand this pandemic and save as many lives as possible. It is the right thing to do. That is what our American values dictate.
If Mr. Patrick wants to demonstrate for us old-timers how to self-euthanize for the economy, I might not object. But I have not noticed him offering to go first.
Thirty days after Patrick suggested that we give the virus containment efforts “a few more days or weeks…after that let’s go back to work and go back to living…” the number of infections has multiplied by more than 10 (to almost 850,000) and the number of fatalities has grown to more than 46,000 – or 46 times from a month ago.
The obvious question is, what would those numbers be if we had listened to the Texas Lieutenant governor. We may not want to hear the answer.
