On Sunday, I received an email from a College Republican who works for the GOP in his ruby-red state. He was close to despair about the idiotic reaction of people in his generation to the coronavirus crisis — hitting the bars for a last hurrah before lockdown — and also about the way older Republicans in his circles have reacted to the virus. He’s left wondering if there is going to be much of a future for the party after the coronavirus crisis has passed.

I verified his identity, then asked him to write an open letter for this blog to fellow conservatives. This young man is a college student, keep in mind. I asked him to protect his own identity, to preserve his job. The day is coming, though, when young conservatives like him will need to speak out publicly.

After noon, he sent this in. He uses the pseudonym “Radio Varsavia”:

Dear Fellow Conservatives,

Following Communism’s fall in Czechoslovakia, politicians called for the banishment of the Communist Party and a purge of Communists and their collaborators. These Czechoslovak avengers had a strong case; Communists had used parliamentary democracy to take over the country, then spent 40 years building a Stalinist dystopia. Czechoslovakia’s President, Vaclav Havel, refused to partake, boldly stating, “We are all responsible, we are all guilty.” Havel, no stranger to the worst excesses of Communist Europe, understood that in any totalitarian regime or failed government, those who “keep calm and carry on” are just as guilty as those who vocally participate. When the dust settles on COVID-19, I fear we Conservatives will confront our guilt in this tragedy: we are all responsible.

As COVID-19 spreads across Europe and America, it is clear that our governments have failed us. Whether those governments are led by pastiches of Tony Blair (France) or low-budget reboots of Churchill (United Kingdom), every government on every side of the aisle has failed.

Most disappointing has been conservatives’ response here in the United States. Now, I’m by no means a liberal or a Never Trumper. I supported President Trump in 2016; I work for the Republican Party in my state, all while attending college, and have served as an officer in of my university’s College Republicans chapter. I’m a Gen Z Republican that was happier to see Trump overthrow the Paul Ryan establishment than I was watching him beat Hillary Clinton–though admittedly, both were extremely pleasurable experiences.

However, I am distraught by watching our side’s response to this outbreak. What began with a measured and responsible approach has morphed into an incompetent jumble of bad calls that only my crackhead aunt would call sane. In our attempt to position ourselves to the right of liberals, we have created a false dichotomy between panic and ignorance–damn the lives that will be lost.

On the side of panic, we have our good friends in the Mainstream media. From the fear-mongering idiots at CNN and MSNBC to the insufferable Twitter Socialists, the coronavirus outbreak has become nothing more than another example of Trumpian incompetence. Fools at The New York Times even proposed calling it the Trump Virus. In Britain, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson has responded in the way American liberals say Trump should’ve replied, British liberals attack him in the same vein as American liberals have attacked Trump. These bad-faith commentators will never reject their puritanical zeal, and will always use any crisis to stoke fear and panic.

These liberals should also fall onto the side of ignorance. Unfortunately, we conservatives have chosen to occupy that lane.

From President Trump and Fox News telling people the virus “isn’t that serious,” to one legislator in my home state saying this virus is “payback for electing Obama,” we conservatives have squandered a golden opportunity to save lives and protect the nation we seek to make great. This past week attended a gathering of Republicans in my state’s capital city. Our governor had just reported our state’s first few cases, but due to the rhetoric Republicans have been hearing from our “great leader,” many attendees mocked the severity of this pandemic. I have received word this morning that one of those very attendees is now in hospital being tested for COVID-19.

This ignorant response is not conservatives’ natural disposition. In times of crisis, we usually err on the side of measured caution. Caution and panic are not the same things; panic is the result of a lack of caution. As conservatives, we should have pushed American families to start preparing for an outbreak, encouraged hospitals to prepare, and incentivize American manufacturers to begin producing ventilators and critical medical supplies–just as FDR did before Pearl Harbor. That would’ve been a true Conservative response, dare I even say a Trumpian answer. Was it not President Trump who in 2014 and 2015 called for measured caution in response to Ebola outbreaks in Africa? Was it not President Trump who, since the 1980s, has claimed our economy was too dependent on outsourcing? Where is that President Trump? Where is the Republican movement his election promised?

The American Right’s decision to choose the side of ignorance will not only put lives at risk but threatens to discredit our entire political movement. And frankly, if we can’t protect American lives during a crisis tailor-made for our campaign, we never deserve to wield power again. For every new case, for every new death, we are all responsible, we are all guilty.

Somehow, even more depressing, is how my own generation has responded to this crisis. As a college student, I have seen my peers complain about “Boomer selfishness” for years. On a good day, I’d agree with their critiques–Boomers didn’t exactly make good with their inheritance. My generation has been paraded as the generation which will change everything “They’ll end climate change! Racism! Homophobia! Sexism! Transphobia!” say our cheerleaders in the media. We have been told that we’ll be more caring, selfless, etc.

But that’s not the kind of generation I’ve seen since Trump declared a national emergency. I’ve seen my peers pack into bars and clubs, take group selfies while being covered in sweat and God knows what other bodily fluids, and captioning it all with things like “young and HEALTHY” or calling COVID-19 “the Boomer remover.”

This callousness, arrogance, and bold stupidity is not simply a repetition of the same attitudes we’ve long blamed on Boomers — it’s a horrific exaggeration of them. It’s like if Boomers wrote to JFK in 1962 telling him to nuke Russia because “YOLO!” If we truly are going to be a generation of change, progress, and love, then let’s show it by using our apparent resistance to the disease to help older citizens survive isolation, rather than using it to get plastered in a trashy night club. Let’s use our tech-savvy skills to build new delivery apps, communication networks, and even greater innovations that could help us all survive this pandemic.

Finally, to my fellow conservatives and my Gen Z peers, I want to express that not all is lost. Actions we take now can still slow down the spread of COVID-19, potentially saving thousands of lives. In addition to making sacrifices now so that tomorrow will be better, let’s also prepare to rebuild our world when this pandemic is over. Isaac Newton discovered gravity during a quarantine, helping to launch the Age of Reason! Imagine what things we could create, discover, and build during what will be our own endless summer. It’s time for all of us to shape up, not because it is easy, but because our communities and nation require it now more than ever before.

We are facing a turning point in our human story. This virus isn’t “the flu;” this moment is more 1914 than in 2001. We have lived our lives in the bliss of Before. We will live the rest of our lives in the tumult of After. We must decide what side of After we wish to fall. Do we want to be the people who rebuild things better than they were before? Or do we desire to only destroy more? Do we want to be 20th century Germany or Post-Civil War America? My allegiance lies with the Radical Republicans of yore. If we are to be, as in Havel’s words, responsible for everything that happens, shouldn’t our legacy be something great and noble? When the sun sets on Before and the dawn rises on After, will we cower from light in fear or will we embrace it with the confidence our forefathers had when building the modern world?

Now is the time to decide. I pray we choose wisely.

Sincerely,

Radio Varsavia

The writer has launched a new blog, Radio Varsavia. His Twitter handle is @radiovarsavia89 I look forward to reading the views of this Generation Z Republican as the crisis plays out. The future of conservative politics is being decided in part within the hearts and minds of people like him.