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I don’t think we disagree. Maybe being concrete would help. Joe Biden is not qualified to make medical judgments about COVID-19 or vaccines. But he absolutely
by earthboundkid 6y ago
I don’t think we disagree. Maybe being concrete would help.
Joe Biden is not qualified to make medical judgments about COVID-19 or vaccines. But he absolutely should decide eg: is better to be fast and risky or slow and safe with new vaccines? Should we prioritize reopening or lowering COVID mortality (bearing in mind being closed causes other mortality, eg suicide)? Can we trust an education/information strategy for masking or do we need a punitive approach to make people participate?
These trade offs are all among two good choices that are also two bad choices (“tragic”). For things that are unilaterally good (put more vaccines in fancy syringes! Speed vaccines! Make a freaking website for vaccines already!) underlings ought to be able to do it without Joe telling them so (but he can intervene if they fail).
- omginternets 6y agoAh, I think I see your point now: the essential qualities of a democratic leader are both (1) to grapple with conflicting values and make judgement calls and (2) to facilitate the work of domain experts. Or, in your words: "set the direction" and "choose the people to implement it". I somehow overlooked the first part of your post. I agree that we agree. Sorry for the mixup :)