The irony of Corona Virus in the United States, a country that likes to demonize socialism, is that socialist programs are exactly what the people in the USA are clamoring for in this time of crisis — government help in the form of the wide distribution of free medical tests, masks, ventilators, and hospital beds, safe places for our children, job and wage protection, economic rescue of businesses, and individual payouts.

All of it — SOCIALISM.

Socialism, when done well, is a buffer during times of crisis. When the shit hits the fan, it’s not private businesses that come to the rescue, though some may work in concert with the government if called upon, it is our government institutions. The big bulky bureaucrats with their sticky layers of rules are the ones we depend on to generate medical tests or hospital beds, to guarantee wages or prop up businesses, to fix our roads and assure our planes don’t fall out of the sky — it is government doing the very social work of keeping society safe from harm.

People may sway toward the idea of limited government, and it may make for a good bumper sticker, but the reality is “socialism” is not the boogieman we’ve been told. Instead, it is the exact framework from which we are reacting to the Corona crisis.