A neoconservative is “a liberal who has been mugged by reality,” Irving Kristol famously wrote. We will watch a similar proposition tested on a national scale. What becomes of a Trump supporter mugged by the COVID-19 pandemic?
Politico ponders that question, though not by interviewing red-hats sickened by it:
While the MAGA movement is divided over how seriously to take the coronavirus threat or how to tackle it, the message among his supporters is increasingly unanimous: If Trump fails to control the virus, prevent its spread and prove his leadership, much less save the economy, he will lose the election and cripple his movement.
Trump’s supporters elected him because he was a “wartime leader” who could fight against the swamp and the elites, so they expect the same against a truly invisible threat, said War Room host and former Breitbart editor Raheem Kassam. “If, for a second, people think that he doesn’t have that strength, or he doesn’t have that fortitude, then it will become a problem,” he said.
The rest of the article quotes conservative figures of varying prominence, but not MAGAs diner patrons the press so often seeks out to take America’s temperature. Those soon to be running real temperatures will have their faith tested, both in Trump and in God. For them, this is not a theoretical exercise.
Construction litigator Mark Frilot is in a coma on life support in Louisiana. He’d been diagnosed and given treatments for the flu before becoming delirious:
Heaven Frilot said Sunday she could hardly believe it. Her husband is 45, a construction litigator who is “never, ever sick.” But now, after seeing images of huge groups partying in New Orleans on Saturday despite the state’s request for people to practice “social distancing,” she is speaking up, hoping her family’s experience can serve as a warning for those who underestimate the risks of COVID-19.
An elementary school administrator my sister knows (and his wife) are among a cluster of cases in Rome, Georgia. Kyle Abernathy is on oxygen and his wife has been transported to Emory Hospital in Atlanta. A local paper reports:
From Kyle Abernathy, “I have tried to be quiet on social media and have enjoyed reading all of our friend’s and families’ posts for prayer. I am so encouraged and uplifted to know we have such a strong support team behind us. As of now, April and I remain hospitalized. She is critical but stable, requiring a ventilator and sedation. Her body needs strength. Please pray for this specifically. She is my bride and I miss her. I want to be able to see her when she’s better. “
Clay Bentley sings in the same choir at the Church at Liberty Square in Cartersville, Georgia. Quarantined and in the hospital, initially he too was told he had the flu:
“I have had the flu before, but I ain’t never felt this bad,” he said.
He said he’d been told that seven or eight people in the choir were in the hospital.
The government conservatives worked so long to drown in the bathtub has floundered in responding to this pandemic. After weeks of dithering and spin, the Trump administration seems finally, slowly to be coming to grips with the reality of it in spite of the man leading them.
These victims will not be featured either in liberal or conservative thought journals. But the virus has hit them and their families hard. Should they survive, will their views on religion, politics, and the role of government in protecting them survive their “mugging”?
This crisis is just beginning.
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