‘Reopening America’ transforms political map blue

By Editor on March 24, 2020 • ( 1 )

Shown here is America’s mostly ‘red’ political map from the 2016 election.

WASHINGTON – President Trump’s decision in March to lift national emergency status related to the novel coronavirus pandemic in order to revive the nation’s economy likely led to his loss of the 2020 election and a massive change in political leanings for states that followed his advice earlier this year, according to experts who analyzed yesterday’s voting results.

That’s because Democratic ‘blue’ states who sided with health experts and maintained social distancing guidelines, sometimes months after the White House changed its policy, had less spread of the novel coronavirus even as they strained under troubled economies.

Meanwhile, Republican ‘red’ states that followed suit with the President have endured hundreds of thousands of deaths, staggering work performances, dubious economic gains, and growing resentment from citizens who have become fed up with the Commander-In-Chief and his allies because of loved ones they have lost and unique hardships they have faced living in areas that removed social distancing guidelines.

At issue has been the question of how much a smooth-running economy is worth lives, according to experts. The result, said UCLA sociologist Erica Stone, has been a ‘wave of blue’ that overran the country in yesterday’s presidential election as the political establishment that once supported Trump in early 2020 has ‘withered away’ due to impacts that the spreading coronavirus has had on their states, in which 80 percent of the population has been exposed to the disease and nearly one million perished since March.

“It’s a shame to weigh the value of human life over the value of the stock market, but it seems the gamble taken by the White House to push the economy forward during this crisis has backfired in many of those places that denied science and returned to ‘business as usual’ a little too eagerly and soon,” said Stone.

Although Stone admitted she can count on her hands the number of times she has left her Brentwood apartment for the grocery store since the pandemic began, and that both the economies and citizens of ‘blue’ states have endured their ‘own kind of hell’ pent up for months compared to compatriots in former ‘red’ states, the trade-off has been worth it.

“It’s just been my cat and I hunkered down in my living room for … oh, well, eight months or so,” said Stone. “Sure, it’s gotten a little lonely at times, and it pretty much sucks, but I hear a vaccine is imminent this fall … or maybe winter … definitely by spring 2021 … so all of this sacrifice won’t be for not!”

Meanwhile, Davy Jones, an electrical engineer from Little Rock said during an interview that he and other citizens of former ‘red’ states have been ‘disappointed’ that their communities were ravaged by such a great magnitude by the spread of the coronavirus compared to traditional ‘blue’ states, only to reach the same conclusions now in November that ‘those whiny, science-believing Democrats’ already did in March.

Shown here is America’s mostly ‘blue’ political map after Tuesday’s election.

“Stock is up for the company I work for, which helped my shares recover and will allow me to retire in five years instead of seven,” said Jones. “But … my son nearly died from a fever in June, the scariest experience in my life, and I lost my grandmother, and they’re talking about layoffs anyway. It seems like there is a cost-benefit issue no matter how this pandemic is managed, since the spread of this virus is inevitable. Still, I’m not sure Trump’s advice to the nation in spring would have been my own if I had been in his shoes, since it seemed to go against science, and maybe even economics.

“In my opinion, stronger protections for workers and caregivers would have done more to help us slug through this economy than bailouts to corporations and golden parachutes for their executives.”

While the political fallout for the President over his handling of the coronavirus ended his political career, he said during a virtually rally to announce his defeat on Wednesday that he was not sure in hindsight if he would have acted any differently.

“You need to make choices in tough times,” said Trump, coughing from a quarantined White House during his televised Zoom call to the nation. “I decided to give Americans the economic freedom to move forward when they needed hope. I guess some people didn’t like my deal, so they decided to move forward without me.

“So, that’s it. Adios. As soon as I get over this cold, I’m flying to Mar-a-Lago to go golfing.”

Leslie Taylor, Nov. 4, 2020