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Yesterday we took a look at the dark side of catastrophe. Today, in the wake of this morning's announcement, we'll take a look at the history how we've dealt with them in the past.
In February of 1976 an Army recruit at Fort Dix fell ill with the Swine Flu and quickly died. Before his death, however, he had passed the virus on to several other soldiers on the base, who were hospitalized. Several weeks later Army doctors discovered that the soldier had passed the illness on to several hundred other recruits, who didn't get sick. They urged President Gerald Ford to mobilize a national Swine Flu vaccination program to prevent an influenza epidemic, fearing a repeat of the outbreak that killed hundreds of thousands of people after WWI. Although hamstrung by delays and public relations problems, by October of that year a national immunization program began, and within weeks nearly a quarter of the nation had been vaccinated.
Unfortunately, around the time that mass vaccinations began, several senior citizens died. While the deaths turned out to not be related to the vaccine, public distrust of the program soared. Of the millions inoculated, the vaccine that was distributed resulted in some people contracting Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neuromuscular disorder that causes paralysis and death in extreme cases. GBS is a rare side effect of influenza vaccines. While the 1976 campaign to vaccinate against Swine Flu is seen as a fiasco, it's also a case study in how public health officials respond to potentially catastrophic infections. The National Influenza Immunization Program was halted in December of 1976. Baxter Healthcare may be called upon to help quickly produce a vaccine this time. The Deerfield-based healthcare giant has invested in technology to produce vaccines using lab-grown cells, which is faster than the more conventional method of using chicken eggs.
While the government is not yet taking extreme steps to deal with the Swine Flu (the President said it's "obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert. But it's not a cause for alarm,") it is important to take such outbreaks seriously. In fact, following the simple steps outlined by the Centers for Disease Control will help prevent the spread of the illness (and all those other nasty bugs) greatly. And Swine Flu has responded well to treatment.
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Batshit crazy Minnesota Republican Michelle Bachmann has insinuated that lack of leadership from Democratic presidents has led to swine flu outbreaks, both today and in 1976. Her proof: Obama is pres now and Carter was pres "in the seventies" when swine flu broke out. She fails to mention that the swine flu in the seventies broke out a year before Carter was president.
Self appointed historian Bachmann went on later the same day to blame FDR for the "Hoot-Smalley" tariff that was a leading cause the depression. Smoot-Hawley was signed into law in 1930 by Hoover. FDR became president in 1933. Also Smoot, Hawley, and Hoover were all Republicans.
Batshit crazy Minnesota Republican Michelle Bachmann has insinuated that lack of leadership from Democratic presidents has led to swine flu outbreaks, both today and in 1976. Her proof: Obama is pres now and Carter was pres "in the seventies," the same decade when swine flu broke out. She fails to mention that the swine flu in the seventies broke out a year before Carter was president.
Master of timelines Bachmann went on later the same day to blame FDR for the "Hoot-Smalley" tariff that was a leading cause the depression. Smoot-Hawley (as it is know to most people) was signed into law in 1930 by Hoover. FDR became president in 1933. Smoot, Hawley, and Hoover were all Republicans.
I saw that too and laughed so hard before I realized I should cry that people probably believe her.
I don't think she is crazy, by the way. Cynical and willfully ignorant, but not crazy.
Bachmann has crazy eyes. Bright with fever and nonsense.
I find her, Michael Steele, Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck fascinating creatures. Like the legends of the mad roman emperors (which were largely legends) except these nutters are for real.
They can't accept that after nearly thirty years of drifting ever rightward the country might shuffle (slightly) in the other direction. They're uneducated on history, reactionary by nature and speaking to largely graying audience.
Yeah, if it weren't sad, it would be funny.
Bachmann would be a kindred spirit with a *far* right wing FDR (socialism!) hating lady who was telling me how she loved all those pretty old murals in the post office....lol.
Seriously?
Dear god.
Yep, She basically parrots all the usual talking points about FDR prolonging the depression and every other right wing talking point against FDR but she did not know what the WPA was.
Hardly surprising, I was listening to BBC world service this morning and they interviewed a "teabagger" in Atlanta who was praising the low tax policies and huge (celtic tiger) success of Ireland. Unfortunately the BBC dude had to break her the bad news...lol.
Thanks for making me even more depressed.
Frankly, I don't care whether one is conservative, lib, whatever so much as I do about factual reality and its offshoot, pragmatism. Argue ideology over factual reality and I will call you fool.
I can't really tell if she's crazy, an idiot, or the kind of demagogic scum (seemingly more and more common among GOPpers) that'd misrepresent historical fact to further their political ideology. Maybe all of the above.
Also...
This.
One good thing that will come of this, I hope, is the emergence of a moderate conservative party--god knows we need one. We are long past due for a new party to emerge in this country.
Funny: The GOP started as a (rapidly rising) regional party (in the North) and will end its days as a (rapidly declining) regional party (this time in the angry, all-but useless parts of the South that still mourn for Dixie and who think Lee was a great general and patriot). The Southerners, the enemy of the GOP so many years and decades ago, will be the last ones standing inside the party. History works in interesting ways.
We'll see, but I think you're right and the GOP will have the same kind of "come to Jesus" moment the Democrats did when the DLC was started after Mondale's trouncing. They can't keep squeezing moderates out and expect to win state-wide elections anywhere other than the Deep South, and certainly not a nation election.
But as it stands now, they're still completely in "get more insular and ideologically doctrinaire" mode, and I bet they will be for a while. If they keep it up for too long, they really run the risk of causing a real, final schism, splitting the party into two really unelectable groups; the whole marriage of fiscally conservative libertarian intellectuals and socially conservative Christian Coalition-types is really on the rocks at the moment. It'll be interesting to see where the GOP leadership decides to go with that.
All good points, and it will be interesting to unfold, especially for those of us fascinated by the Federalists, the Whigs, the (short-lived) Bull Moose, etc.
As well, never, ever underestimate the ability of the Democrats to shoot themselves in the feet, or for the party in power to recklessly overreach.
In the former case, I'm really not *too* worried about that. At least not in the near future. They really seem to be coalescing around a moderate, center-left, "big tent" platform and it'd be hard for them to screw that up. Especially considering that so many of the newly elected Democrats in Congress are from historically moderate or even recently Republican districts/states, I don't think they're at risk of going too liberal, which is really the only big way they could shoot themselves in the foot at this point. These new folks are gonna dance with the dates that brung 'em; they're not going to move to the left knowing they'd have to go back and campaign on that in 2 or 6 years or whatever. So overall, I'm optimistic that we're at the start of a good, fairly long Democratic run.
As for the latter, that's just kind of the natural life-cycle, IMO, and assuming Democrats are able to hold on to the reins for a significant period, it's almost inevitable at some point. A party is in power for too long and gets bloated and complacent, ideologically entrenched, in a dogmatic rut. Then somebody comes along and hands their electoral ass to them before they can figure out how they screwed up, but once they do, the whole cycle starts all over again. Hakunamatada or whatever.
Again, good points, though you seem much more optimistic than I am. What can I say? It's "spring" in Chicago and I am freezing :), which does not make one optimistic.
Hah, I hear ya.
I am optimistic, though. I'm sure it's somewhat to the chagrin of Democrats to my left, but the moderating/"pragmatizing" of the Democratic Party is starting to pay real dividends, I think. If nothing else, the GOP has proven that it more or less doesn't know how to beat reasonable, pragmatic, moderate-to-mainstream liberals in wide elections anyplace other than the South. And their realization that this is the case and that it's an electoral death sentence is really causing them to panic, flail, and implode; just when you think they can't possibly lose any more credibility, they find new ways to embarrass themselves.
So yeah, I'm generally optimistic; assuming no major developments (like, say, the GOP getting a map and a flashlight with which it could find its own ass), I think 2010 is going to be a fair-to-good election year for Democrats, with similar results in 2012. After that, though, is when it gets murky, IMO.
Agreed,
As a history fan, those kind of factual/historical omissions irk me more from a purely historically point of view. That and people being so cavalier about something they don't even have a cursory understanding of.
The future of the GOP is not so bleak. The main reason? The fiscal conservative movement among middle-class Americans is only going to grow. The GOP will be the beneficiary of that movement.
While it is regaining its strength, the GOP should not compromise its positions on spending, bailouts, immigration, or defense in order to survive. Sticking to its positions on these issues will increase---not decrease---GOP voters.
The place where the GOP should--and will--slowly change is on some "social" issues. These include gay marriage, "Don't ask don't tell," stem cell research, and some other issues.
Anyway, just wait until 2010. You will see that the Republicans are doing just fine.
While it is regaining its strength, the GOP should not compromise its positions on spending
Ok, cut military spending by 20%. We'll still have a larger defense budget than all the other nations on earth. Combined.
I don't see many GOP hands going up on that one.
bailouts,
Like the 700 billion dollar hand out no-strings-attached sweaty wad that Bush handed off the Wall St. back in the fall?
immigration,
You mean the deeply anti-hispanic, racist sloganeering that lost the Republicans the house and senate and a generation of young latino voters?
or defense
You mean the war fought under false pretenses or the mismanaged conflict that has left Afghanistan little more than a hollow state while Pakistan harbors militants?
in order to survive. Sticking to its positions on these issues will increase---not decrease---GOP voters.
Clapping for tinkerbell ain't gonna bring her back boss.
The place where the GOP should--and will--slowly change is on some "social" issues. These include gay marriage, "Don't ask don't tell," stem cell research, and some other issues.
But who will all the bigots, homophobes and religious nutters vote for? Who will speak for the morons?
GOP: This party's over.
GOP as "Fiscally Conservative",
That's a good joke Ward, let us know when a GOP President ends a term with a budget surplus rather than massive deficits and inflated defense spending. Ike and Goldwater would be attacked as godless communists by the GOP today.
Stupid bitch, Carter was elected in 1976. I remember then president Ford gamely getting his swine flu shot, but he didn't fool me.