Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick Urges Stop Lockdown, Let Elderly ‘Sacrifice’ Themselves, So ‘We Can Get Back to Work’

March 24 (EIRNS)—At a time when the United States is in urgent need of real leadership to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson last night brought on the “pro-life” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, to offer Americans the immoral neo-con solution: Stop all the aggressive measures against the coronavirus epidemic, in an attempt to save lives, because they’re causing an economic depression and wrecking the economy. Instead, “sacrifice” the elderly (or anyone else who might be vulnerable) so “we can get back to work.” As the Dallas Star Telegram asked today, what about much younger people who are vulnerable because they have underlying medical conditions? Sacrifice them, too?

Patrick cloaked his Malthusian argument—Carlson called it a “thoughtful” one—in maudlin concern for his and all other grandchildren, who, he said, are missing out on the American Dream, which he claimed is only being destroyed by the current measures, nothing to do with Wall Street and parasitical bankers. After all, “all the experts say that 98% of all people will survive” the virus, Patrick said, but meanwhile, all the harsh measures are “killing our country in another way. It could bring about a total economic collapse and potentially a 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. Those we want to shelter in place can still do so but we can’t live with uncertainty.”

Stating that he is 70 years old, Patrick declared, “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 is the exchange, I’m all in.” Surely there are lots of grandparents who would make the same choice, he said, “because they don’t want the whole country sacrificed.... So let’s get back to work.... Those of us who are 70 plus, we will take care of ourselves but don’t sacrifice the country. Don’t do that.”