COVID's Political Roots

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

While COVID is an extremely dangerous disease that has been contracted by people inhabiting the full socio-economic and political spectrums, it can be slowed and even controlled to a large extent by taking basic safety precautions such as masking-up, avoiding large gatherings, and social-distancing when you must be in the vicinity of other people.  People who stay at home as much as they can and follow those commonsense guidelines are far less likely to catch the virus than those who ignore precautions.

It should not be surprising that some groups, based on their specific beliefs and philosophies, are more susceptible to the disease than others.  People who have a natural predisposition to rail about freedom and liberty as they stubbornly resist any attempts by government officials or agencies to control their behaviors, even if those behaviors lend themselves to the spread of disease, are far more likely to become infected than those who quietly submit to the advice of experts.

Donald Trump, the leader and the emblem of the Republican Party, has been trying since May to completely reopen society - businesses, schools, and churches - in order to keep the American economy pumped up and to limit the psychological effects of the pandemic.  In June he was back to holding large, essentially mask-less rallies and encouraging those around him to pretend that the world-wide health emergency was essentially a delusion.  During the fall presidential campaign he ridiculed his opponent for wearing a mask, and when the holidays came into view Trump was encouraging travel and family gatherings inspite of advice from government agencies to the contrary.

Trump set the tone for his family, his administration, and his political party.  The best way to defeat the pandemic was to pretend that it just did not exist.  All of that profound ignorance, of course, came with a price - and that price was, at least in part, that the pandemic seems to have had a far greater impact on Republicans than it has had on Democrats.

In June former GOP presidential candidate, Herman Cain, died of COVID after he apparently caught the disease while attending (unmasked) a large Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Trump and First Lady Melania were themselves diagnosed with COVID in early October, and his case was serious enough that he was admitted to a luxury hospital suite at Walter Reed for four days.

Eight United States Senators, all Republicans, have been diagnosed with COVID.  The list includes Rand Paul (Kentucky), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), Thom Tillis (North Carolina), Mike Lee (Utah), Kelly Loeffler (Georgia), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), and Rick Scott (Florida).  Twenty-five members of the House of Representatives have also been diagnosed with COVID including sixteen Republicans and nine Democrats - even though Democrats hold the majority of seats in the House.

Others who either work in or around the White House and have contracted COVID include presidential son Donald Trump, Junior,  White House Chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, White House Senior Policy Advisor and resident bigot Stephen Miller, the Vice President's Communications Director Katie Miller (Stephen's wife),  Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, and HUD Secretary Ben Carson.

Two of Trump's lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, are both currently down with COVID and Giuliani is hospitalized.   Giuliani's son, Andrew, whose government job involves arranging the visits of sports teams to the White House, has also been diagnosed with COVID.

Former Florida attorney general and Trump advisor Pam Bondi has had the dreaded diagnosis, as has former New Jersey governor and Trump advisor Chris Christie.  The primary assistant press secretary at the White House, Chad Gilmartin, has been diagnosed with COVID, and so have Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien and campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski.   Ncholas Luna, the Director of Oval Office Operations has also tested positive for COVID.

And finally, Ronna Romney McDainiel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Party, in an effort to stay relevant within her political organization, has herself tested positive for COVID.

COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease that should spread readily across the lines of man-made social groupings, like political parties, but in the United States the denial within the Republican Party is making that group an especially fertile field in which the disease can flourish.   

But for them it's not about illness and dying, it's about the freedom to make their own choices and the complete lack of social responsibility toward others.  A person should be free to do what feels right for himself - and screw everybody else.

That's what Trump would do - and his lemmings will continue to pay the price for his deceitful and evil folly.