The Great Democratic Hope Wants To Eliminate Your Freedom

The coronavirus is continuing to spread like wildfire. The number of cases of COVID-19 worldwide has now passed 10 million and the number of deaths worldwide is 500,000. In the U.S., the number of cases is 2.5 million and the number of deaths is 125,000. American exceptionalism is definitely visible in the data, as it is #1 worldwide in both categories, with twice as many cases and deaths as runner-up Brazil and roughly 30x as many cases and deaths as China, despite China having four times the population of the U.S. Maybe all of Donald Trump's tweets praising Chinese President Xi Jinping's leadership were on target after all.

The biggest hotspots in the U.S. are in Texas, Florida, and Arizona, all of which are likely to be swing states in November. But new cases are up in 36 states and down in only two, Connecticut and Rhode Island. They are stable in the others. The ICU at Texas' largest hospital, the Texas Medical Center in Houston, is full. People calling 911 to report a case of COVID-19 in Houston have to wait an hour to even get an operator. Fifty Houston firefighters have tested positive and 200 are in quarantine. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is gradually realizing that he has a problem on his hands and has politely asked people to wash their hands and wear masks in public. He also closed the state's bars. But he hasn't ordered any new restrictions.

Florida is also a problem, with 9,500 new cases on Saturday, another new record. Yesterday there were another 8,500 new cases, but it is possible that reporting isn't complete because it was a Sunday. The number of new cases every day is up fivefold from 2 weeks ago. The total number of cases there is now 133,000. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is still in denial. He said: "Really nothing has changed in the past week in terms of, we had a big test dump." Dr. Marissa Levine, a professor of public health at the University of South Florida, didn't exactly agree. Her comment: "Without doing anything differently, we're going to see tens of thousands of new cases every day in short order."

In Arizona, 87% of ICU beds are occupied. There were a record 3,600 cases reported Saturday and 3,900 on Sunday, for a total of over 70,000 so far. As in Florida, the governor, Doug Ducey (R), asked people to stay home if possible and wear masks if not possible, but didn't issue any binding orders. If restaurant staff comes down with COVID-19 in Arizona, the restaurant is legally allowed to stay open, and many have done so. There is not even a requirement to tell diners that a staff member has COVID-19, so contact tracing would be impossible, even if it were done, which it isn't.

For many people, the new rise in infections means that 4 months have been wasted. People have lost their jobs, their businesses, and more, and we are almost back to where we were in the beginning. It is beginning to appear that all those sacrifices were for nothing due to mismanagement at the very top. At some point people are going to be asking why they sacrificed so much for so little, and whose fault is it?

In short, we are nowhere near the end of this pandemic, the U.S. has managed it just about the worst of any country in the world, and large states with Republican governors are the worst in the U.S. Arizona and Florida are especially relevant politically, because both states have an abundance of seniors, many of whom are not happy about how the federal and state governments are handling the crisis, and who may express their discontent at the polls in November (or at a mailbox in October). Currently, we have Joe Biden ahead by 9 points in Florida and 5 in Arizona. Together those states have 40 electoral votes. Arizona has a strong history of absentee voting although Florida does not. If the 2020 results are identical to the 2016 results except for Florida and Arizona turning blue, then Biden gets 272 electoral votes and becomes #46 (assuming there are no faithless electors). We expect to hear from the Supreme Court on that topic this week. Also on abortion and Trump's tax returns. (V)