Disability Inclusion: The Americans With Disabilities Act is Not ‘Liberal Fascism’

Meghan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader

As I’ve said, I think it’s important that euthanasia opponents try to develop a cursory understanding and appreciation for disability inclusion efforts, especially in light of several recent policy efforts that are harmful to people with disabilities. This post is for “MAiD” opponents who may understand that “MAiD” harms people with disabilities, but also view statutes like the Americans with Disabilities Act as a burden or intrusion on personal liberty.

In choosing an example of such thinking, I found myself remembering a passage from assisted suicide opponent Jonah Goldberg’s 2007 book “Liberal Fascism,” in which he does a great job tracing the right to die movement’s roots in the eugenics movement, but then argues that the Americans With Disabilities Act’s effects on small businesses make the ADA “fascist.”

Goldberg writes:

“In Nazi Germany businesses proved their loyalty to the state by being good “corporate citizens,” just as they do today…let us concede that what the Nazi regime expected of “good German businesses” and what America expects of its corporate leaders differed enormously. This doesn’t change some important fundamental similarities. Consider, for example, the largely bipartisan and entirely well-intentioned Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, celebrated everywhere as a triumph of “nice” government.”

It’s not OK to compare the Americans with Disabilities Act to the policies of Nazi Germany, especially given the Nazis’ mass murder of the disabled.

Also, the Americans with Disabilities Act is not “nice;” it requires society to accommodate disabled people, even if some of the people doing the accommodating hate the disabled people’s guts. Because that’s what has to happen in order for disabled people to be fully functional members of society.

Goldberg goes on to complain:

“The law mandated that businesses take a number of measures, large and small, to accommodate customers and employees with various handicaps…Now imagine that you own a small, regional soft drink company. You’ve worked tirelessly toward your dream of one day going eyeball-to-eyeball with Coke or Pepsi. Proportionally speaking, making your factories and offices handicapped-friendly will cost you vastly more money, not just in terms of infrastructure, but in terms of the bureaucratic legal compliance costs (Coke and Pepsi have enormous legal departments; you don’t).”

Disabled people do not have an obligation to experience daily humiliation for a small soda business owners’ dream of going eyeball to eyeball with Pepsi any more than we have a duty to be demoralized and die for “MAiD” proponents’ designer deaths.

Goldberg laments,

“Or imagine you’re the owner of an even smaller firm hoping to make a play at your regional competitors. But you have 499 employees, and for the sake of argument, the ADA fully kicks in at 500 employees. If you hire just one more, you will fall under the ADA. In other words, hiring just one more thirty thousand-dollar-a-year employee will cost you millions.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act actually kicks in at 15 employees, but more importantly accessibility adjustments do not cost “millions.” There are also government tax incentives and grants to help small businesses offset the cost of complying with the ADA, but Goldberg does not mention that.

Overstatements about the expense of accommodating disabled people draw from the same “burden to society” trope that permeates “MAiD” ideology. Goldberg continues:

“The ADA surely has admirable intent and legitimate merits. But the very nature of such do-gooding legislation empowers large firms, entwines them with political elites, and serves as a barrier to entry for smaller firms.”

The ADA is not “do gooding,” it is one of the only tools disabled people have to ensure that we are treated with at least a modicum of dignity. To put it bluntly, it is selfish to try to consign disabled people to ignominy so that your small soda business can compete with Coca Cola.

Goldberg goes on to claim,

“Indeed, the penalties involved in even trying to fire someone can amount to guaranteed lifetime employment. Smaller firms can’t take the risk of being forced to provide a salary in perpetuity...”

No, that’s not how it works. No business provides “salaries in perpetuity” to employees with disabilities. The Americans With Disabilities Act requires that disabled people be “otherwise qualified” for their jobs and that accommodations not place an “undue hardship” on the employer. Employers are given significant latitude to decide which situations fall under these clauses and it is very easy for disabled people to lose our jobs. This causes the poverty that can push disabled Americans with life-threatening disabilities toward “MAiD.”

If Goldberg were disabled, he would like the Americans With Disabilities Act a lot more. In comparison to the experiences of disabled people who would not otherwise be able to enter a small business to buy a soda, a soda company’s desire to compete with Coca Cola is rather trite.

I mention Goldberg’s 2007 statement because I am wondering if the current American government has implemented or suggested so many damaging disability rights policies because many of its supporters are people like Goldberg who have said “Man, implementing laws like the Americans With Disabilities Act is a pain in the head. Could you eliminate them, or at least make their requirements more “reasonable,” please?

But maintaining a fair society requires some level of sacrifice from its members. Right to die proponents do not have the right to medicalize disabled people’s suicides so that they can die with champagne in their hands and small business owners do not have the right to undermine disabled people’s dignity so that their small businesses can compete with Coca Cola.

So, other euthanasia opponents, don’t be like Jonah Goldberg. If you want euthanasia prevention to fully promote the dignity of disabled people, demonstrate full support of laws like the Americans With Disabilities Act.