I must confess that, after everything we’ve seen in the last four years, I’m still a little bit shocked to see the American right deciding 100,000 dead is an acceptable price for being able to go shopping, and that the elderly don’t matter because “they were going to die anyway.“

Above tweet wasn’t a prompt to start a “well I’m never shocked by anything“ contest, by the way. I’m just reading the news and feeling very depressed about the lack of collective character in this nation right now.

As I was telling a friend earlier, the right’s approach towards this pandemic is similar to what happens in Republican wars: if you complain about the war, or express concern about the death toll, they say it’s not that bad, and that you are “rooting for death.“

But when we raise alarm about the death toll from this pandemic, or in a war, or any other situation where deaths could’ve been prevented through better leadership, what we are saying is “Did this have to happen? Why is it acceptable to you for the number to keep getting higher?“

I’m angriest about this widespread talking point among Republicans that it doesn’t matter when older people die from Covid because they were old. How the hell could you possibly know when their time was? They could’ve lived another five, 10, 20 years for all you know.

Stepped away from this thread for a while & returned to people repeating the false dichotomy of “open the economy“ or “stay inside.“ There’s a 3rd option, which is the government steps up and floats people until things are safe again. But Trump and the Republicans won’t do that.

Trump and the Republicans are happy to shovel billions of dollars at the banks, the airlines etc because they think their survival is important, but they won’t support individuals or small businesses. And yet their followers continue to worship them like gods.

Essentially what we have here is the spectacle of Trump worshipers crashing up a philosophical wall. The only way to get through this more quickly is to have government embrace “socialism“ at least for a little while. And their brains explode rather than accept that.

So based on everything reputable that I’ve read, we’re in for a longer haul than we would like. Every time a country has prematurely declared victory over this thing and “opened things up“ even partially, there’s been a spike in infections. No reason to think we will be spared.

To paraphrase a line we saw on Trump worshipers’ T-shirts in 2016, the virus doesn’t care about your feelings. You can’t wave your hand like a magician and declare that the plague is over because weather is beautiful and you feel like going to the pool. Or the golf course.

I use the phrase “Trump worshipers” repeatedly in this thread on purpose, because the 2020 GOP is a religious cult that accepts secular members. The figurehead is an ignorant narcissist impervious to reason, and in fact is dedicated to obliterating it.

There was a minor freak out in the progressive wing of the left when Trump signed off on payments for households (“he’s running to the left of the Dems!“) but it turned out to be a small one-time payment. There’s plenty of room to make the case for better support of individuals.

I’m not sure that the death toll can ever rise to a level that will shake off the iron grip that Trump has on the imagination of the GOP, some using him for cynical reasons (to control the courts), others genuinely believing he’s a savior, even declaring he is anointed by God.

But when I see pictures of Trump and Pence in photo ops without masks or gloves, and then I go to local stores in Cincinnati and see the ratio of “no mask” to “mask” going up every day, my heart sinks. Our leader ship is rotten. It can’t even model appropriate behavior.

I don’t believe things can get better faster with this crew of ignorant, corrupt, science hating, racism exploiting people in charge of the country. And I don’t have enough faith in my fellow Americans to trust them to pick up the slack absent honest, righteous leadership.

So my family and I & my like-minded friends are going to continue to act as if it’s March, and take every reasonable precaution we can, and try to stay at home to the extent that it’s possible, and hope none of these maniacs coughs on us because they are threatened by the sight.

We’re not going to pool parties, we’re not going dancing if they open the clubs, we’re not going to any restaurant that lets things get packed, etc. we’re not even going to movie theaters, which breaks my heart because I love them most of all. But this thing is serious.

I’m muting this thread because I didn’t post it as an invitation to change my mind. I’m just telling you how I feel and how I and my family intend to conduct ourselves now that it’s become clear that Trump & the GOP would rather kill lots of people than try a different approach.