A year after the pandemic began, there are 100,000 new COVID-19 cases and 3,000 COVID-19 related deaths each day.
A study from last September found that 60% of pandemic-related business closures have become permanent. Last year, Louisiana residents lost 93,800 jobs, with only a minor recovery since then.
The U.S. Congress has passed two COVID-19 relief bills which have provided a combined total of only $1,800 for single Americans making less than $75,000 per year. This relief is far short of what people truly need to get by during an economic collapse of this size.
Meanwhile, members of both political parties spend too much time attacking each other online and not enough time dealing with our nation’s current health and economic crises — people are tired of watching politicians argue while Americans across the country are struggling every day to make ends meet.
The Republican Party in particular must decide what its priorities will be: either continue to promote lies and conspiracy theories or work to pass laws that help the American people.
Congressional Republicans have a range of opinions on this issue. On one hand, there are people like Sen. Mitt Romney and Rep. Liz Cheney; on the other, Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene has been in the news lately for her controversial views, including her support for the QAnon conspiracy theory and claims that the Sandy Hook and Parkland school shootings were faked. In a Facebook post from 2018, Greene proposed that the California wildfires raging at the time were caused by Jewish space lasers.
While Romney and a few other Republicans have denounced fringe conspiracies outright, there is one conspiracy theory that has found widespread support in the party: the claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from President Donald Trump.
This baseless lie, spread by Trump himself, led to a majority of House Republicans objecting to the results of the election on Jan. 6.
Only a few hours later, we saw the consequences of that lie take full effect when a violent mob stormed the Capitol, causing the deaths of five people.
Rep. Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House, was the only member of Republican leadership who voted to impeach President Trump for his role in spreading lies about election fraud and inciting the Capitol riot. Actions like this should be standard, but in the context of today’s Republican Party, it’s more like the exception to the rule.
Republican senators like Hawley and Cruz made the argument that they objected to the election results because their constituents had real concerns about the validity of the process. But their constituents had concerns because they’d been lied to, and not just by Trump.
But how does any of this — from space lasers to stolen election claims — help anyone outside of Washington?
An entire political agenda based on fighting against Democrats (or “radical liberals” or whatever) isn’t actually fighting for anything.
I disagree with boring old traditional conservatism for many reasons, but my disagreements are mostly about policy. In the case of Trump, Greene, Rep. Matt Gaetz, et al., there are no coherent policy proposals to disagree with.
Our country needs two functioning parties to maintain a healthy democracy. In the span of two years, Republicans lost the House, the Senate and the White House. There is an opportunity for Republicans in Congress to rebuild, put lies and conspiracies behind them and participate in politics that aren’t cynical, trivial and undemocratic.
For members of Congress, legislating (read: doing the job you were actually elected to do) might not be as exciting as getting attention on Twitter or appearing on Fox News, but it is more important. Promoting lies and conspiracies and attacking the left might be fun, but it doesn’t do anything to help people.
Economic insecurity is widespread in our country. The U.S. unemployment rate is not expected to recover for a decade and the American people need relief. I don’t think arguing with Seth Rogen on Twitter is the way forward.
Sal Beeby is a 21-year-old political science junior from Oakland, CA.
