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Too Much Corona Gives Me a Headache
Poll from in mid-March 2020.
Imagine what things would look like if the Coronavirus had never happened. The economy would be setting new records every quarter, employment rates would be high, everyone would be making money. Milwaukee would still be burning, from the Antifa/BLM re-enactment of the 1968 Chicago Democrat National Convention. The convention would have blown up in their faces, as many people would be afraid to go, making their audiences smaller. Democrats would have been forced to crush the rioters, and then explain why they did that. Or not crush the rioters, and then explain why they did that. The Republican National Convention would be rocking right now, with enthusiastic crowds packing the stadium, cheering every speaker, and then picking up trash around the stadium afterward. Republicans would be looking forward to a landslide victory in November, and there really wouldn’t be anything that could change that.
But this is different. Our Coronavirus shutdowns were devastating to our economy, which is starting to improve again but has a long way to go. The dumpster fire of a Democrat National Convention never happened, allowing Joe Biden to remain in hiding even longer, and sparing the Democrat leadership the dilemma of how to handle the inevitable rioters. The Republican National Convention is going well, but instead of a stadium full of excited people, it is now just another TV political ad, just longer. Predictions on this November’s election are close, especially considering the overwhelming win for Trump predicted in March, just before Coronavirus hit.
But the Coronavirus has had an enormous impact on our society, and now the Democrat media is free to push harder, where they see an opportunity:
The Antifa/Black Lives Matter crowd continues to peacefully destroy cities across the country, which of course is Trump’s fault. And thanks to Trump’s neglect, a major hurricane is about to hit the Gulf Coast. We won’t even get to enjoy the great American pastime of football this fall – Trump’s fumbling of the Coronavirus will force Americans to give up many of their favorite things. Sad.
How could Republicans have avoided all this? I’m not sure. Even in retrospect, I’m really don’t know what they could have done differently.
Was this an act of nature, or an orchestrated attack on the Republican party? I don’t know that either, although I’m generally inclined to suspect incompetence over malice in situations like this. I think a lot of things sort of got away from a lot of people.
But regardless, here we are. It’s amazing how much can change in just a few months.
The corollary of this is that the next few months are likely to be just crazy.
You think things are nuts now? You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
Published in General
It is indeed amazing how much things can change in a few months.
Here is an example. MLB started back up a while back. All of the players/coaches were wearing masks of varying sorts… I watched a game last night. Masks still being worn, but only sort of. On and off, but just as much off as on. The manager didn’t have his on at all for a large part of the game.
And here’s my point: COVID has resulted in major behavioral changes in people, but these are forced, and they can really only happen so long as we’re required to view the stupid thing in a vacuum. If you’re involved in some sort of emergency (say, dealing with a hurricane), you’re not going to be thinking about social distancing or wearing your mask or whatever other stupid things you’ve been doing… that’s because life doesn’t exist in a vacuum. And, when you actually start to look at everything in total, all the stuff that really doesn’t matter all that much (in spite of however many people want it to) begins to take their rightful places on the back-burners.
So, even though we keep hearing about this “new normal,” I don’t think that nearly as many people are prepared to fully change their lives around for no good reason as a lot of people want to think. As soon as legal requirements are removed, you’ll see that while things might change in a matter of months, things can also change in a matter of days or weeks.
If many of these emergency orders were to expire, I have little doubt that, within a week or two, we would look around us and 2020 would seem like a bad dream… I hope that happens before Christmas. Because I love Christmas.
I hate how the goal keeps shifting. I hate the exceptions carved out for Lefty causes.
Most of all, I hate how the Left took two of the most unifying events I have seen and poisoned them.
As I write this, I am wearing a mask, surrounded by people wearing masks, but I sure as hell don’t believe we’re all in this together. Not anymore.
La la la la la la la!!!!!!!!
Sorry. Just had to say it. I hope you’re wrong; but I fear you’re not.
“Was this an act of nature, or an orchestrated attack on the Republican party? I don’t know that either, although I’m generally inclined to suspect incompetence over malice in situations like this. “
Sorry, Doc, much as I love and admire you, this is more than incompetence. The creation of the virus is clearly attributable to Chinese researchers who left a literature trail over a decade; the release of the virus was exquisitely timed to be of advantage to the Chinese, it just got a little away from them; the reaction of our governing class has been uniformly calibrated to hurt the POTUS and crash the economy. Incompetence can’t explain deBlasio, Cuomo, Mills and Whitmer. Their malicious, malevolent actions are deliberate.
Everyone followed their incentives.
The media leveraged the WuFlu for their own ends. Always talk it up.
The “Safety-First” culture met its reductio ad absurdum.
People, who are driven more by fear than hope anyway, got maximally afraid. Especially those who are natural worriers.
Politicians are lawyers, and “better safe than sorry” seems prudent.
Big companies are guided by lawyers, and they did exactly the same thing, just to limit liability exposure. There is little upside to being brave or honest and declaring this whole thing over, removing mask policies.
It has been a perfect storm.
So the cure is to change the incentives. How could we do that?
Remove the right to sue for inadvertent exposure to illness. This would be a change in law. It would allow companies to reopen and de-mask.
But fixing the media, politicians, the fear of people and the stupid “safety is #1” culture? I do not know.