The breaking news that Congress is voting to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt speaks volumes as to how low we have stooped. The charges that he covered up the origin of the covid virus, enjoyed his celebrity status, told people to wear masks and led efforts to stop the spread of the virus by closing schools and public gatherings is hardly the stuff of a diabolical criminal. Unfortunately, his efforts thrust him into the middle off a toxic political arena drunk on conspiracy theories, political ambitions, and competing ideologies.
Leading the charge against Fauci is Senator Rand Paul. For Paul, a sometime libertarian, Dr. Fauci is exemplary of all that is wrong about government, that it is intrusive, overbearing and always given to actions that damage the private sector and prevent the free market from wielding Adam Smith’s “unseen hand.” At best, Paul expresses the views of disgruntled business owners who lost money during the covid endemic; at worst he recklessly threatens the reputation and life of someone who happens to have a different understanding of how to deal with a major public health threat.
The public humiliation of Dr. Fauci condemns all of us. Who can forget the early years of the covid-19 scare when people were dying and patients were isolated from their families; the fright and tension in our communities palpably real. How can we forget that 1.2 million Americans died. Whatever Fauci did or did not do, whatever mistakes he might have made, we should not stand by and watch him be destroyed by politicians who have traded hate for compassion, lies for truth and moral turpitude for ethical and legal principles.
It is easy to go after an indefensible 85 year old man for political theater. What exactly do Fauci’s detractors hope to gain from his condemnation? Perhaps. their efforts would be better used to challenge our rogue president who repeatedly has been charged with wronging and formally convicted of falsifying business records. But that would require integrity and courage, virtues in short supply in Congress these days