“But the lies spread by the crackpot media wing of the G.O.P., led by President Trump’s favorite radio host, Rush Limbaugh, can be lethal. Covid-19 has killed more Americans in a month than the flu kills in a year. Yet Limbaugh has compared it to a common cold or seasonal flu. Those who believe him are likely to sneeze freely or crowd together in a grocery store.
There’s a direct line of responsibility from the Republicans in Wisconsin who forced voters to risk their lives in order to participate in an election to those citizens of the Badger State who have since tested positive after voting — and may die.
For the majority of state leaders, who favor listening to medical authorities rather than political hacks, Attorney General William Barr has threatened legal action if they err too cautiously on the side of public health. His Justice Department may have to intervene, he said, to help businesses that “need more freedom.”
All of this follows Trump’s obsession with money over human life, with markets over medicine. On Wednesday, just as the United States reported its largest daily death toll yet, Trump tweeted: “States are safely coming back. Our Country is starting to OPEN FOR BUSINESS again.” So much for the departed.
He said this after the number of coronavirus deaths in the nation doubled in little more than a week, giving the United States the horrid distinction of posting the highest body count of any nation on earth by far. We will soon lose more people to the novel coronavirus than all the Americans killed in the Vietnam War.
Trump’s open-for-business cheerleading will cause many more deaths. Even Robert Redfield, Trump’s whipsawed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that Trump’s tweets about “liberating” states now on medical lockdown were “not helpful.” These are code words for crazy.
Given that Trump is an Alpha male simpleton with no filter, it’s never difficult to find the true motive behind his tactics. As he has said, he wants all the authority and none of the responsibility. If we lose a quarter-million Americans, it’s the fault of governors running their respective shows. If the number is far less, it’s because he took charge.
He’s against vote-by mail, the least life-threatening way to allow Americans to exercise their most basic constitutional right, because “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
He’s encouraged life-threatening demonstrations. What’s particularly galling is using children as props in those protests, endangering their health.“
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