5-26-20
Last weekend Bob and I rode bikes on the local bike trails and spent the rest of the day at home, which is pretty much our routine now with rare exceptions. I texted D- about the all the bunnies we saw because we biked close to her neighborhood. She texted back:
Oh nice…Over in New Smyrna now getting my hair done! So happy! This town is packed today! We just got take out fish sandwiches and ate them in the shady Garlic restaurant overflow parking lot.
!!!
To me, this text sounded like a testament to Dear Leader Trump who has been threatening church and education leaders with his wrath if they don’t open up right now (even though school is officially over for the summer). He has made it a mark of patriotism to venture out into the virus-ridden world to buy and die for the economy and especially for his reelection prospects.
D- is a nurse, a bit of a germaphobe, a sensible, responsible person except for being a registered Republican and Trump supporter. Still, I thought she would know better. I was shocked, frankly. Her ode to opening the local economy up sounded like doublethink straight out of 1984. The virus death numbers are going down, but it is still killing people and health advisors say stay away from crowds and practice social distancing. But Trump says to reopen the economy right now. Trump is the president, why would he want to kill me? The warnings must be fake news. I will gladly let a stylist breath all over me while she dyes my hair just like the one in the newspaper who recently infected 80 people. It’s fine!
But as dangerous and inane as Trump is, I have heard from at least four people, ardent democrats, who say that Biden is ‘creepy.’ In those exact words. They are not sure they will vote for him.
This kind of thing makes my blood pressure soar.
Trump’s comments about grabbing women, the rich lode of racism he spews like sewage onto twitter, his lies and demagoguery, his violent rhetoric directed towards immigrants, democrats, his lack of all sense of decency, well-
How can he have influenced so many people already that Joe Biden, a respected political figure and ally of Barack Obama, is now considered a doddering, drooling, dumbass?
I thought maybe the one equitable thing that would come out of pandemic is that evidence of Trump’s failure to lead is so colossal, so obvious, that it has actually killed over 100,000 Americans and driven 35 million Americans out of work. What further proof does anyone need that he has to go?
Instead, Americans are put off by Joe Biden’s stuttering.
Is the sea of American democracy so shallow, we are actually aground?
Coronavirus stats from WorldOMeter at 2:35 pm EST:
5,642,571 cases (ww)
349,920 deaths (ww)
1,714,371 cases (nw)
100,103 deaths (nw)
51,746 cases (fl)
2,252 deaths (fl)