The present discussion of the right-wing suicidal tendency is also based on a sociological approach, although Durkheim never wrote about or identified any kind of political-ideological suicide, and it is premature to try to measure how frequently this one occurs and among what groups. It posits this suicidal tendency as the product of an ideology—a social construct—that has turned the capitalist market into a fetish, that is, that attributes magic powers to the capitalist market to self-correct and solve every economic and social ill. This ideology is rooted in the powerful material forces of competition among individuals and firms, the pursuit of the highest rate of profit and the accumulation of capital. It is a doctrine that advocates minimal government intervention in a society run by the capitalist marketplace, even to safeguard the lives of people, including the lives of right-wing politicians themselves, from the contagion of a potentially mortal virus that has already led to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the U.S. and elsewhere.
This fetishism of the capitalist market, particularly in its concern with the non-stop pursuit of profit and accumulation of capital was best articulated by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas, who, in March of this year, told Fox News that he would rather perish from the new coronavirus than see instability in the state’s economic system. In an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on April 20, Patrick elaborated on his March statement, arguing that “there are more important things than living. And that’s saving this country for my children and my grandchildren and saving this country for all of us” adding that he didn’t “want to die, nobody wants to die, but man, we’ve got to take some risks and get back in the game and get this country back up and running.” Was Patrick propagating a cult of death here? Yes, but in a secular capitalist fashion. He was not promoting the intrinsic virtues of dying, let alone telling stories about the wonders of the afterlife as, for example, religiously-inspired terrorists sometimes do. Patrick claimed that he wanted to save this country for his descendants through continuing the only relentless non-stop economic activity that he could conceive of, American capitalism. And similar to Mao Zedong proclaiming that you cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs, if thousands of people have to die, so be it.
With politicians like Patrick setting the tone, Texas businesses started reopening in May. But as hospitalizations increased dramatically in June and July (with 10,133 Texans dead from the Covid-19 virus by August 13), Gov. Greg Abbot was forced to backtrack, pausing reopening plans and scaling back others in June. Although Abbot insisted that closing businesses should be “the last option” (Texas Tribune, July 9, 2020). he did eventually issue a statewide mask order that provoked a huge backlash from the Republican Right including being censured by Republican groups in eight counties in Texas (New York Times, July 23, 2020).
Meanwhile, in the neighboring state of Oklahoma, Republican governor Kevin Stitt kept rejecting statewide mask orders, and in March, even posted a photo of himself with his children in a crowded restaurant, blatantly disregarding social distance protocols. On July 15, however, he became the first governor to test positive for the COVID-19 virus. On the same day, the state reported 1,075 new cases, surpassing its own previous record established the day before. By mid-July, the state had recorded more than 21,000 cases of infection, an increase undoubtedly linked to the governor allowing the opening of stores and barbershops on April 24, restaurants, movie theaters, and houses of worship on May 1, and bars on May 15.
One major corollary of this capitalist market fetishism in the United States is the extreme individualism expressed in the commonly-made assertion by right-wingers that individuals have the absolute, unqualified right to decide whether or not to wear a mask. Consistent with this extreme version of individualism, no consideration is given to the fact that the supposedly individual right to decide whether or not to wear a mask affects others’ individual right to life by subjecting them to the risk of becoming infected by maskless shedders. Much less does it take into account the social costs it creates, including the hospitalization and convalescence of the shedders themselves and the people they have infected.
There are other political and cultural ideologies and practices besides extreme individualism and market fetishism that have reinforced this right-wing suicidal ideology. One involves the notion that the adoption of protective measures against the propagation of COVID-19 signifies, as sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox has noted, cowardice and lack of manliness. This also fits in with the version of male chauvinism that seeks to prove one’s manhood by engaging in reckless and dangerous behavior without regard for its deadly consequences. This is incidentally another form of the cult of death, but in this case, with clear pre-capitalist origins.