These Republicans are making coronavirus even worse
You can only assume they want us dead
After leading the world through public health crises throughout the 20th century, the United States has now transformed into the perfect host country for a lethal virus. Here, COVID-19 has found an ideal environment, a nation already riddled with corruption, cynicism, and sad naïveté.
Last week saw a number of small, targeted protests against pandemic quarantines staged at several state capitols, with poorly informed and remarkably reckless locals demanding that governors lift stay-at-home orders and restrictions on businesses and some government services. While the anger was real, these protests didn’t exactly happen organically — the rallies were initially sparked by the far-right AstroTurf organizations funded by the Koch Brothers and their ilk, and then the flames were fanned by Fox News, conservative media, and way too much coverage from mainstream outlets.
While some have been impressive (incredibly, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine ranks among the most responsible), many Republican lawmakers across the country have not only fueled the protests, they’ve used their platforms to make the crisis worse. There have been boneheaded and malicious public statements, efforts to block aid for (and even actively hurt) the people they represent, and legal maneuvers meant to force premature reopenings. Being quarantined sucks and as I can personally attest, the resulting financial peril is very real and very unnerving. Instead of backing large relief efforts, however, these lawmakers are taking advantage of people’s economic hardship and offering them poison dressed up as a cure.
Here is a list of some of the worst offenders (and where applicable, their 2020 Democratic challengers) — I’ll be updating this on the Progressives Everywhere newsletter site, so be sure to keep an eye on it.
Florida
Florida is quickly ascending to its rightful place as one of the biggest shit shows in the country, thanks in large part to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s early refusal to take preventative measures. The state has soared past 30,000 cases of coronavirus and over 1000 deaths, which explains why a vast majority of Floridians don’t want the state to re-open any time soon.
In a poll this week, 72% of Floridians said they were opposed to re-opening the state at the end of the month when the stay-at-home order expires. A whopping 76% of Floridians said they won’t come out of quarantine until a public health official certifies it as safe to do so. Those recent photos of people out on the beach are a misleading representation of what’s going on down there, but they do make for grabby article packaging and social media engagement.
Still, DeSantis has commissioned a fully Republican, business-dominated panel to determine how to reopen the state, in part due to pressure from truly awful GOP lawmakers like Rep. Anthony Sabitini (HD-32). After self-quarantining due to exposure to the virus at CPAC, Sabitini, already a renowned racist (like, recent blackface racist), has made clear that he actually doesn’t care about anybody’s well-being. He published a lie-filled op-ed urging the re-opening of Florida in several local newspapers, and in case people missed that, he’s been hammering home the point on Twitter:
He’s being challenged by Democrat and apparent Star Wars fan Ryan Morales.
Elsewhere in the state, Ashley Moody, Republican Attorney General is fighting with the Democratic Agriculture Commissioner, who shut down the online application system for concealed carry permits. Clearly, this is the most important issue facing Floridians, who shouldn’t be leaving their homes.
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Rep. Cord Byrd (HD-11), a literal firearms attorney, is supporting her idiotic distraction. He’s using his legal acumen for all kinds of helpful things during this time:
His tweets are a treasure trove of malicious intent; he also openly celebrated the opening of beaches in Jacksonville last week.
Georgia
Gov. Brian Kemp had a pretty terrible week. His decision to lift the shutdown order on many non-essential businesses, likely to screw millions out of unemployment, not only earned him the expected blowback from Democrats, it even got him thrown under the bus by his beloved President Trump. On the bright side, he’s not nearly the only Republican in Georgia making catastrophic mistakes or actively subverting the safety of millions.
Combing through the Twitter feeds of GOP state legislature members turns up a whole lot of obedient retweets of Kemp’s misleading updates and dangerous executive orders, and it’s hard to single out particular lawmakers when they all clump together in an amorphous blob of awfulness. Lucky for us, a few Republicans in the legislature have otherwise distinguished themselves as offensively terrible leaders and thus nominated themselves for the dubious honor of inclusion in our list.
First, let’s tag Rep. Kasey Carpenter, who splits his time between representing Georgia’s 4th district in the State House and running several restaurants. Not only did he support Kemp’s decision to prematurely open the state, he also re-opened his own restaurants, setting a terrible example and putting locals in danger. Unfortunately, he has no Democratic opposition this year.
Rep. David Ralston (HD-7), the powerful House Speaker, was at least honest when he vowed to block expansive vote by mail in the state because it would “be devastating” for Republicans. He’s an electoral force in Georgia, but he does have a challenger in Democrat Rick Day, who he crushed in 2018.
Then we have Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols and Rep. Ron Stephens (HD-164), who have both spent much of their time egging on Georgians to ignore scientific models and the news media tirelessly reporting on the mushrooming pandemic in the state. Echols went with the tried and true “fake news!” accusation, while Stephens has repeatedly called infection rate and death projections “wildly inaccurate,” though he hasn’t explained why a guy whose main passion seems to be building casinos in his district would know better than scientists.
Stephens faces a strong challenge from Democratic candidate Marcus Thompson.
Oh, and there’s State Sen. Bruce Thompson (HD-14), who was diagnosed with coronavirus at the beginning of the month and decided that he needed to quarantine himself in his multi-million dollar vacation home in Florida. Both Georgians and Floridians were rightfully outraged by the decision — the guy brought his infection across state lines, into a new community — and he was forced to return to his other expensive home in his actual district. The Indivisible group in his district has been making a lot of hay out of this blunder and his other terrible policy decisions.
This year, Thompson will likely face off against Democrat Travis Johnson.
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Michigan
Republicans in Michigan have been doing everything they can to subvert democracy and sabotage Gov. Gretchen Whitmer since the day she was elected in 2018, and no international pandemic is going to stop them from their cynical partisan terrorism. Just as they passed laws to limit her power before she entered office, the GOP there is now working to limit her authority to declare a state of emergency. But unlike in 2018, when outgoing Gov. Rick Snyder signed nearly all of their naked power grabs, Whitmer is able to at least veto this one.
Still, they continue to meet in Lansing, exacerbating the risk of spread of the virus, and their rhetoric is just as dangerous. Jokers like State Sen. Tom Barrett (SD-24), who sponsored the aforementioned power grab bill, continue to undermine the efforts of healthcare workers in the hard-hit state. State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (SD-16) complained that Whitmer was “killing our livelihoods” with the stay-at-home order on the same day that COVID-related deaths in Michigan reached new heights. If his name is familiar, it’s because last year he compared abortion to slavery and caused an uproar. The guy is very clearly pro-life.
And last but not least, State Sen. Dale Zorn (SD-17) wore this Confederate flag mask on the floor of the legislature, threw his wife under the bus, and then defended the Confederacy anyway.
Texas
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has really made a strong national impression during this crisis. First, he suggested that grandparents across the country would be fine with dying if it meant getting the economy back on track. Then, instead of walking it back, he rolled up his sleeves and pulled out an even more explicitly lunatic assertion, saying during a guest spot on Tucker Carlson’s Let Them Eat Cake Hour on Fox News that “there are more important things than living.” Not that he was volunteering to put himself at risk, of course — he just wants restaurants and country clubs to open up and serve his friends.
Meanwhile, a number of legislators are using more bureaucratic and secretive maneuvers to push Gov. Greg Abbott to re-open the state as soon as possible. In mid-April, well before the virus fully bloomed in Texas, Reps. Mike Lang (HD-60), Matt Krause (HD-93), and Tony Tinderholt (HD-94) published open letters to Abbott urging that he drop restrictions on non-essential businesses, complete with racist epithets, calling it the “Wuhan Virus.”
Krause has the strongest Democratic opponent, political activist Lydia Bean, in a rematch from 2018 that will likely be a very heated race.
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Wisconsin
And then there is Wisconsin, where Republicans made people choose between voting and dying and still lost a massive election. Top GOP officials have been openly stoking protests that have brought thousands of gun-toting maniacs, where they’ve congregated around the Capitol, standing shoulder to shoulder and screaming in one another's faces.
State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (HD-63) has led the way, donning full PPE while telling people it was safe to vote in the Supreme Court election that he tried to sabotage and now suing Evers to rescind his stay-at-home order. He also encouraged people to turn up for the protests in Madison (for which he was presumably wearing a full bodysuit).
And then there is Rep. Shae Sortwell, who carries guns around legislative offices and has a long history of homophobia and generally being cruel.
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"More important things than living." Unless, of course, you're talking about abortion. But, hey, what "pro-lifer" isn't a hypocrite?