Protesters who want to re-open the California economy, mostly closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, rally along Main Street in Huntington Beach California. Friday, April 17, 2020.
Photo by Stephen Carr
There have been moments in U.S. history when Americans were all on the same side against a common enemy. The two world wars come to mind, though certainly not subsequent wars. And, of course, many of us remember the days after 9/11, when flags flew on every porch and the universal kindredship of patriotism extended into Christmas, when red, white and blue lights decorated homes.
The misinformed rush into wars in the Middle East put an end to that fellowship and began a long stretch of political argument, made more venomous by social media debates.
And then came the coronavirus and, despite years of bitter divisiveness, Americans across the political spectrum laid down their rhetorical weapons for the first time in two decades and ceased bickering for a few weeks.
If there’s one person who can’t stand the country’s citizens being on the same page it’s President Donald Trump, and on Friday, he once again sledgehammered a wedge between the red and blue states by upper-case Tweet-hollering like the neo-Tea Party politician he is, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA!” urging people in those states, all led by Democratic governors who had imposed, sensibly one might argue, restrictions meant to curtail the spread of the disease.
While those restrictions have been provably effective in slowing COVID, Trump, and many of the citizens of those states, feel they have suffered enough, just a bit more than a month or so, and that restrictions now are trampling on their rights as a bigod free people.
And, so, now there’s a palpable feeling among many that restrictions are constructs of freedom-hating Democrats, while Republicans have co-opted the issues, just as they’ve done with the American flag, and are taking to the streets in brazen social-distance-snubbing crowds, mask-less for the most part (it would be hypocritical, if dangerous, otherwise) and rallying around the Gadsden flag.
Trump’s cry for liberation came in the wake of protests around the country as crowds, dotted with MAGA hats, gathered in packed groups around state capitols to demand that restrictions be immediately lifted, and to demonize their Democratic governors. It’s the president’s vaunted base and he’s going to make hay from the resentment that he’s encouraging, not just in those three states he tweeted about, but even in the deep blue state of California, where on Friday, people in Huntington Beach, California’s own personal Florida, protested the lockdown.
Trump would have to do an awful lot to upgrade to “abysmal” the description of his leadership during this crisis. Despite repeated warnings about the potential of widespread deaths in America as early as January, Trump went 0-for-February in taking any action on calling for restrictions, which he only managed to do in mid-March. By that time even people who play doctors on TV knew about the severity of coronavirus.
Despite all this, the smartest man in any room he walks into, boasted, “I knew it was a pandemic before it was a pandemic.” If that’s a rare bit of truth from Trump, then it’s further damning evidence of his lack of readying the country for the crisis.
And so now we have political distancing going on, with the Fox network hosts gleefully tossing gasoline on the fire, casting the issue as freedom vs. health. Host Laura Ingraham tweeted, “When will residents protest and reclaim their freedom?” and Tucker Carlson, expressed his hope that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer loses her job because of her restrictions. “Because she certainly deserves it.”
With his favorability ratings tanking at more or less the same pace as the economy and employment figures, this re-stoking of hatred and bitterness is political gold for Trump, and, while he has repeatedly shown incompetency as leader, you can’t accuse him of not knowing how to use hatred, fear, a misunderstanding of patriotism, a suspicion of science and medicine, a tendency to gobble up conspiracy theories and a false sense of persecution to excite his base.
Many Republican governors are heeding or plan on heeding Trump’s exhortation to relax restrictions if, for no other reason, to “get America back on its feet.”
It’s not going to do that. It’s going to kill people.
Tim Grobaty is a columnist and the Opinions Editor for the Long Beach Post. You can reach him at 562-714-2116, email [email protected], @grobaty on Twitter and Grobaty on Facebook.
Opinion: Quarantine Chronicles, Day 34: Suddenly, we’re not all in this together
There have been moments in U.S. history when Americans were all on the same side against a common enemy. The two world wars come to mind, though certainly not subsequent wars. And, of course, many of us remember the days after 9/11, when flags flew on every porch and the universal kindredship of patriotism extended into Christmas, when red, white and blue lights decorated homes.
The misinformed rush into wars in the Middle East put an end to that fellowship and began a long stretch of political argument, made more venomous by social media debates.
And then came the coronavirus and, despite years of bitter divisiveness, Americans across the political spectrum laid down their rhetorical weapons for the first time in two decades and ceased bickering for a few weeks.
If there’s one person who can’t stand the country’s citizens being on the same page it’s President Donald Trump, and on Friday, he once again sledgehammered a wedge between the red and blue states by upper-case Tweet-hollering like the neo-Tea Party politician he is, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA!” urging people in those states, all led by Democratic governors who had imposed, sensibly one might argue, restrictions meant to curtail the spread of the disease.
While those restrictions have been provably effective in slowing COVID, Trump, and many of the citizens of those states, feel they have suffered enough, just a bit more than a month or so, and that restrictions now are trampling on their rights as a bigod free people.
And, so, now there’s a palpable feeling among many that restrictions are constructs of freedom-hating Democrats, while Republicans have co-opted the issues, just as they’ve done with the American flag, and are taking to the streets in brazen social-distance-snubbing crowds, mask-less for the most part (it would be hypocritical, if dangerous, otherwise) and rallying around the Gadsden flag.
Trump’s cry for liberation came in the wake of protests around the country as crowds, dotted with MAGA hats, gathered in packed groups around state capitols to demand that restrictions be immediately lifted, and to demonize their Democratic governors. It’s the president’s vaunted base and he’s going to make hay from the resentment that he’s encouraging, not just in those three states he tweeted about, but even in the deep blue state of California, where on Friday, people in Huntington Beach, California’s own personal Florida, protested the lockdown.
Trump would have to do an awful lot to upgrade to “abysmal” the description of his leadership during this crisis. Despite repeated warnings about the potential of widespread deaths in America as early as January, Trump went 0-for-February in taking any action on calling for restrictions, which he only managed to do in mid-March. By that time even people who play doctors on TV knew about the severity of coronavirus.
Despite all this, the smartest man in any room he walks into, boasted, “I knew it was a pandemic before it was a pandemic.” If that’s a rare bit of truth from Trump, then it’s further damning evidence of his lack of readying the country for the crisis.
And so now we have political distancing going on, with the Fox network hosts gleefully tossing gasoline on the fire, casting the issue as freedom vs. health. Host Laura Ingraham tweeted, “When will residents protest and reclaim their freedom?” and Tucker Carlson, expressed his hope that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer loses her job because of her restrictions. “Because she certainly deserves it.”
With his favorability ratings tanking at more or less the same pace as the economy and employment figures, this re-stoking of hatred and bitterness is political gold for Trump, and, while he has repeatedly shown incompetency as leader, you can’t accuse him of not knowing how to use hatred, fear, a misunderstanding of patriotism, a suspicion of science and medicine, a tendency to gobble up conspiracy theories and a false sense of persecution to excite his base.
Many Republican governors are heeding or plan on heeding Trump’s exhortation to relax restrictions if, for no other reason, to “get America back on its feet.”
It’s not going to do that. It’s going to kill people.
Tim Grobaty
Tim Grobaty is a columnist and the Opinions Editor for the Long Beach Post. You can reach him at 562-714-2116, email [email protected], @grobaty on Twitter and Grobaty on Facebook.
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