I was at the grocery store the other day in my homemade hazmat suit, looking for something to eat for the next week, when suddenly the music stopped and over the loudspeakers came a soothing voice that told us “we’re all in this together.” I had to laugh. We may all be “in this together,” but we’re certainly all experiencing this pandemic from very different perspectives. It all depends what side of the aisle you’re on and where you get your news.
Even as late as mid-March the country was sharply divided on the looming crisis. The NPR-listening left, who had been aware of the gravity of the situation since January, had already started to distance themselves socially. While the Fox-watching right was still convinced that this new virus was actually just teeny-tiny Democrats set out to re-impeach President Trump. We may all be in this together now, but the tribalism remains.
A great example is the recent outrage (on both sides) about President Trump’s comments regarding UV light and the injection of disinfectants as remedies for COVID-19. As soon as the words left his mouth, each side pounced. Those of us on the left shook our heads and laughed and started making funny memes. Those on the right (after getting their talking points from Rush) defended his words by citing the pre-clinical trials going on at Cedars-Sinai with the “Healight” device, and smugly reminding us that chemotherapy is basically injecting poison into the body, isn’t it? And then the next day, come to find out, Trump was just being sarcastic, trying to rile up the press. But do you really want a president just riffing at a briefing? We’re going through the kind of pandemic that this nation, or the world for that matter, hasn’t seen in more than a century. Now is the time for thoughtful leadership, not a pissing contest with the fourth estate.
Defenders of the president also like to supply us all with lots of numbers and statistics about the virus and talk about risk analysis. But the numbers of cases and deaths are rising so fast that their commentaries and letters are outdated a week later. Yes, in mid-April there were 26,182 positive cases in California, but as of late April there are now 45,200 positive cases. Of course, no one truly knows how many cases there really are because you have to be at death’s door to actually get tested, so we could actually have double or even triple that number of cases. Early modeling predicted that we would see 100,000 to 200,000 deaths, and those on the right rolled their eyes. But we’re already up to 56,752 American lives lost, which means we will unfortunately soon surpass the rosy, new modeling the administration offered of maybe 60,000 deaths tops. It’s true that thousands of Americans lose their lives to heart disease and cancer each year, but neither of these diseases is contagious.
Yes, the country has lived through other pandemics, but we haven’t seen this amount of death since 1918. The H1N1 pandemic, during the Obama administration only claimed 12,500 American lives. Even the Bush administration kept the death toll during the SARS pandemic down to less than a dozen.
Defenders of the president also like to bring up the Constitution whenever possible. Big, bad Gov. Newsom has his fancy Italian boot on the neck of our constitutional right to assemble and move freely. But defenders of the president are selective when they cite the Constitution. The one thing the Constitution mandates our government to do is to protect us from invasion. Since we have already been invaded, President Trump has declared that we are war, at war with an invisible enemy (I wish someone would tell him that it is actually a microscopic enemy). President Trump has even declared himself a wartime president. If this is the case, then perhaps he should take a gander at Article 4, Section 4, which clearly states that the “United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion.”
It’s too late for the “protecting us from the invasion” part, but it is not too late to liberate no-excuse, mail-in voting for all citizens, guaranteeing our beloved republic in this time of war. The Constitution also offers a great argument against his opinion that each state should be in charge of its own testing. Since we are “at war” with the virus, then one of our most beautiful, powerful weapons is testing. Article 1, Section 10, prohibits states going it alone when it comes to war. Of course, those of you on the right with your handy pocket Constitution will immediately counter that each state has been “actually invaded,” so it is up to each state to fight its own battle. But most states don’t have the resources to fight this war on their own, so they’re probably not going to win their battle.
And now the right is just itching to get this economy rolling again. Spoiler alert: It’s going to be a slow roll. The good news is that we Americans have faced crisis and war before and prevailed. We’re going to get through this. And remember, we’re all in this together.
Leah Braitman writes from Lompoc. Send comments to the editor at clapham@santamariasun.com, or write a letter for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 14-21, 2020.