The acting president considers himself and his family exempt from the laws of man and nature. Many Americans followed his lead. To Sturgis. To the hospital. To the grave.
Within weeks of the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, northern tier states had the highest new coronavirus infection rate in the country:
The surge was especially pronounced in North and South Dakota, where cases and hospitalization rates continued their juggernaut rise into October. Experts say they will never be able to determine how many of those cases originated at the 10-day rally, given the failure of state and local health officials to identify and monitor attendees returning home, or to trace chains of transmission after people got sick. Some, however, believe the nearly 500,000-person gathering played a role in the outbreak now consuming the Upper Midwest.
More than 330 coronavirus cases and one death were directly linked to the rally as of mid-September, according to a Washington Post survey of health departments in 23 states that provided information. But experts say that tally represents just the tip of the iceberg, since contact tracing often doesn’t capture the source of an infection, and asymptomatic spread goes unnoticed.
In rural Tennessee, the number of those who have died from the virus is now double that reported in urban areas. “The number of coronavirus cases tied to President Donald Trump’s September rallies in Minnesota has risen to 23,” reports Daily Beast.
In rural Midwestern towns, victims may find no beds. The effects on small communities can be devastating:
“One or two people with infections can really cause a large impact when you have one grocery store or gas station,” said Misty Rudebusch, the medical director at a network of rural health clinics in South Dakota called Horizon Health Care. “There is such a ripple effect.”
Sunday family dinners can be deadly.
The reality of the administration’s failure to stop the coronavirus is sinking in, slowly, even in Trump country. Partisans stealing or defacing opponents’ yard signs are standard mischief during campaigns. But now it is difficult to know if Trump signs are quietly disappearing from supporters yards because of theft or eroding support.
It seemed everyone standing in line to vote wore masks as I stood as a poll observer outside an early voting station in the reddest part of this county last week. Maybe it is the reality of COVID-19 or maybe the misogyny. Perhaps both.
Even as Trump and his surrogates deliberately mutilate the name of Democrats’ female vice presidential candidate, the acting president begs suburban women, “Will you please like me?” Yes, it has come to that:
In 2016, the suburbs powered Mr. Trump’s victory, with exit polls showing that he won those areas by four points. Now, polling in swing states shows the president losing those voters by historic margins, fueled by a record-breaking gender gap. Mr. Biden leads by 23 points among suburban women in battleground states, according to recent polling by The New York Times and Siena College. Among men, the race is tied.
Mr. Trump’s suburban deficit has emerged as a significant problem for his re-election bid, one that’s left the president begging with women to come home.
CNN explains:
Many of the female voters who have abandoned Trump recoil from his divisive language and disapprove of both his handling of race relations and the pandemic. But he has tried to convince them to support him through a campaign of fear and xenophobia, with claims about the Democratic agenda that plunge deep into the realm of the ridiculous and would be believed only by the most naïve, low-information voters.
His speech Saturday night in Michigan exemplified those political miscalculations when it comes to women he has referred to as the “suburban housewives of America” as he tried to create fear about crime from immigrants and argued that Joe Biden will upend life in the suburbs by putting public housing projects in the middle of leafy neighborhoods — a reference to an Obama-era housing regulation aimed at ending segregation.
It’s not just the rest of us who have tired of Trump’s shtick.
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