Stupidity Spread in Droplets

By JOHN YOUNG

Here we go, a slide down a razor blade of more death and disruption.

This against a foe we know how to beat.

New York is beating it. Europe is beating it. Australia is beating it. But vast swaths of the United States are getting their cans kicked.

Why? Because greed and stupidity remain even more immutable than COVID-19.

Let’s acknowledge others getting their cans clobbered: Donald Trump and his droid army.

They have demonstrated that “getting the economy rolling again” means revving up ambulances and hearses. Move ‘em up, head ‘em out.

How many months of sacrifice by how many people since March? How many billions of dollars in sustenance for businesses and workers sidelined by the disease? And the curve that was flattening now is fattening — again.

As the meme goes: They say you can’t fix stupid. You can’t quarantine it, either.

Don’t wear masks. Don’t social-distance. Smirk at testing’s role. Aerosolize those thoughts and prayers. Karaoke Night is Thursdays as always.

No, this is not how to “get the economy rolling again.” This is how to return to lockdowns and swamped hospitals.

Back during the AIDS crisis, much was made of Patient Zero, whose wanton sexual activities made him a super-spreader.

Who is Patient Zero of this pandemic? Clinicians are certain to identify Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick.

Not that he has the virus (not that he knows), but he was among the first to promote the social disease by which unnecessary suffering is certain to endure.

Patrick’s line, “There’s more important things than living, and that’s saving the economy,” is being bronzed in the halls of Texas hospitals.

Of course, he was speaking of the most vulnerable among us who might die. Disposable. Distractions. Data points. Impediments to GOP erotica — any uptick in GDP.

Speaking of data: Today’s poll numbers show Trump should be reserving a Fuhrerbunker in the Alps for the autumn. Chief among previous supporters fleeing his spell are those over 65.

Why, oh, why? Could it be that 127,000 deaths and counting into this pandemic, Trump invariably opts for political posturing and campaign-ad framing over medical science and common sense?

Older Americans tend to listen to doctors. Trump doesn’t.

Oh, wait. The Associated Press reports that the administration was recruiting “pro-Trump” physicians to go on television and tell viewers it’s wise to rev the economy as quickly as possible.

Where are those physicians? Any in Texas right now? Florida? Arizona?

Older Americans, the ones whom the party of Trump and Patrick considers to be cannon fodder, are turning to the party of Biden, the leaders taking this pandemic seriously.

The Democrats said this week they don’t need to cram a convention hall for the purpose of wearing funny hats and sharing spittle. Their national convention will be virtual.

The Republican National Convention simply will be contagious, and not in terms of enthusiasm.

In a New York Times commentary on why increasing numbers of older voters have turned away from Trump — political scientist Rudy Teixeira cites the “ostentatious concern with reopening the economy rather than preventing deaths among the most vulnerable.”

The concern is not limited to the aged. In a New York Times/Siena College poll showing Biden leading Trump nationwide by 14 points, a double-digit majority says the federal government’s priority “should be to limit the spread of the coronavirus, even if it hurts the economy.”

This must be disappointing to Dan Patrick and the Chief Poser. For as we are seeing, not controlling the virus has undermined the two chief objectives of the Republican Party – to boost the economy for the most comfortable among us, and to make Donald Trump look good.

John Young is a longtime Texas newspaperman who now lives in Fort Collins, Colo. Email jyoungcolumn@gmail.com. See johnyoungcolumn.com.

From The Progressive Populist, August 1, 2020

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