…When they find out that they can’t force most people out of their houses with magical thinking?
Steve M at NMMNB makes a good point about the MAGA “protests” demanding that the governors end their stay at home orders. Will people just start streaming back to the malls and the restaurants? Good luck with that.
For the people who think the lockdowns are all that stands between us and a thriving economy, how do you explain this chart?
Angry Fox-addled protestors in Michigan and elsewhere may have no fear of the virus, but normal people do, especially if they’re older. The president and the plutocrats want the economy opened, and in much of America they’ll get their wish, even though we’re still experiencing more than 2,000 deaths a day from COVID-19, at a time when the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicted we’d be at 1,266.
So the right can force the economy open, but many people won’t venture out to participate
Of course they won’t. Many businesses won’t open either. Steve M. contemplateswhat happens then and I confess I hadn’t thought of it:
What happens then? The anti-lockdown propagandists will begin to say that anyone who’s reluctant to shop is a cowardly liberal who wants America to fail. On the left, we’re used to being called enemies of the people. But they’re about to start demonizing the healthy-but-frightened elderly, as well as people with small children who worry about being lost to them for weeks in intensive care, or worse. They’re about to demonize anyone who has okay odds of surviving Russian Roulette with the virus but decides not to take the chance.
Shopping will be patriotism. Legitimate fear will be treason. They’re not messing around.
This will not surprise me. The GOP governors and politicians just want to be able to deny unemployment insurance to people who refuse to risk their health. But they can’t force people to go out . Right now, the businesses that are required to work at 25% capacity (something that will drive them to bankruptcy as well) may fill their tables with MAGA for a while. But there aren’t enough of them to bring the economy “back to normal.” When that becomes obvious, there will likely be a backlash against people who refuse to pretend that everything’s just fine.
Here’s a phase one:
The shopping as patriotism isn’t unprecedented. After 9/11, George W. Bush told everyone to go out and shop. Shopping is how Republicans show their love of country.