I am always impressed by Paul Krugman. But this morning he went beyond impressive, in summing up the cosmic flaw of the Republican party in his op-ed The Cult of Selfishness Is Killing America:
Many on the right are enraged at any suggestion that their actions should take other people’s welfare into account.
And of course, wearing a mask makes a statement that the wearer is taking other people’s welfare into account. Can’t have that now, can we? Each against all, y’know.
This attitude has actually been part of the national mythology for generations: the frontiersman, the lone cowboy, O’Henry’s Horatio Alger’s poor lad pulling himself up by his own bootstraps, the self-made man. Donald Trump claiming he started out with “only” a million-dollar loan. Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness — if she believed in hell, she should be there now for that book alone.
But under the modern GOP — the whole modern GOP — this country has taken selfish irresponsibility to a new extreme.