Let's Make Some Coronavirus Response Measures Permanent

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The pandemic era is truly upon us now, as the continent of Europe moves rapidly towards lockdown and many U.S. cities are following suit. The markets are in free fall, apparently feeling sick after the sugar rush of the White House press conference that began half an hour before Friday's closing bell. We are beginning to internalize that the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, will not just require us to change our lives and habits. It will not just reveal so many tears in the fabric of our society that predate the crisis. It may well reshape our world and how we govern it on a permanent basis.

And perhaps it should. If the crisis has exposed preexisting conditions, at least some of the remedies we come up with to respond now should be adopted permanently. Here are a few which might qualify.

1) Vote By Mail

As the primary season continues, there will be a growing push to put a stop to in-person voting. It's not just that older people, who are more at risk, show up in disproportionate numbers to vote. Polling stations are also often staffed by retirees, who usually fit the risk profile. It is dangerous to persist with this. There are calls now to postpone these elections, if only for a few weeks, and allow people to vote by mail. Since 1998, Oregon has sent its registered voters a ballot via the U.S. Postal Service three weeks before each election. They mark it up and send it back in before Election Day. That's it. The system has led to strong voter turnout: 68 percent of registered voters participated in 2016. Oregon has also embraced automatic voter registration with some success. (Washington state does this also)

If we do indeed move to vote-by-mail to respond to the demands of this moment, why not just keep it that way for the future? The United States has miserable rates of voter participation for any number of reasons, but surely high among them are the number of barriers to voting we insist on constructing. Why in some states can you only vote in person on one day of the year, which is not a holiday, meaning you have to take time off work to do so? Hourly workers—working-class folks—may not have that luxury, which might just be the point. But let's use this crisis as an opportunity to make our democracy fuller and more vibrant: allow people to vote from home for a couple of weeks every election, and start automatically registering people to vote. What's the downside, unless you don't want people voting?

-more-

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/lets-coronavirus-response-measures-permanent-152600965.html

[procon]

1. Yes! I was thinking the same thing.

Pelosi passed some big items that have long been on the Democratic wishlist. The are not as fully inclusive as they should be and many provisions include limitations, but this stuff can be fixed later on if we can hold onto this foundation.

We now has free testing for this virus, expanded food assistance, new unemployment benefits and some paid leave for certain workers. There is an expansion of paid family leave, the bill would also establish a new paid sick leave program for 14 days that applies to sick people, caretakers and parents.

It's a great start, now we need a Democratic president and Senate to make it permanent.