What Are Republicans Up To?

This blog piece will depart from our usual format. It's less sharing links than speculating on a bigger picture based on things we know.

We shouldn't assume that Trump and other Republicans, congressional or state, are on the same page on every issue. But those lower level Republicans will almost always support Trump because they're afraid of the repercussions if they get out of line.

Washington Post

Factor #1

The Republicans are putting a lot of pressure on states to open up. Barr has threatened legal action against states that aren't moving as fast as Trump thinks they should. McConnell has backed off, but he threatened to let states go bankrupt, arguing that red states shouldn't support blue states. (What he was really doing: attacking state pension funds.) The truth, we all know, is that blue states are richer than red states and generally subsidize red states on the whole. There's the whole "Liberate" protest movement, which Trump encouraged.

The ugliest part of the GOP plan? They're organizing so that employees who refuse to risk their lives, the lives of people they love, and public health by refusing to go to work will lose their employment benefits. In other words, they're coercing people to return to work against the public interest.

Let's remember the pattern:

• Feb. 29: 1 death
• Mar. 29: 2,425 deaths
• Apr. 29: 60,967 deaths

With deaths spiking the past two days, clearly the Republicans are valuing economic activity over public health. There has to be a balance, but no experts think we're seriously ready for what they're trying to do.

Factor #2

Trump is promising stuff, but he has no plan to address the real issues that stand between us and a safe opening. 

Jared says we're fine with testing: "I'm very confident we have all the testing we need to start reopening the country." He adds that states have "excess capacity" for testing, which is a lie. 

Trump just says anything that comes to mind on the subject. He promises massive amounts of testing materials, fails to deliver on his promises, brags about his progress despite failing to deliver on his promises, then says it's all up to the states and they shouldn't rely on the federal government. In other words, Trump isn't serious about testing. 

But here's the one that baffles me. The press started reporting, 

Trump won’t use the Defense Production Act for medical supplies. But he’ll use it for meat.

That's the Editorial Board of the Washington Post talking. Not your typical editorial take. Within hours another story broke: the Pentagon is applying the Defense Production Act to testing swabs.

This is so fucking typical. Trump delayed action on this front for weeks, with medical professionals and governors begging him to take this step. But Trump only moves so that he can counter the complaint that he clearly values meat processing over public health.

How much more ready to open would we be if Trump had prioritized this issue?

And another couple of things. (1) Where are we getting our biggest clusters of coronavirus cases? Answer: Nursing homes and meat production facilities. (2) Who works in meat production plants? A lot of people who aren't white. (3) And how have meat production plants responded to safety concerns? Not fucking well.

In fact, the coronavirus is ravaging people Trump hates: prisoners and detained migrants. It disproportionately kills black people.

Here's the local story from Lancaster County.

Tyson officials would not provide the exact number of employees at those plants or say whether any of them have been sick with the virus.

"Since this is an ever-changing situation, we're not sharing specific numbers," a Tyson spokesman said.

Sure....

Conclusion

So what are these people up to? I don't know for sure. But here's what I think: Republicans are trying to save their electoral chances and enrich their cronies by sacrificing public health. (It won't save their electoral chances.) Bonus: they really don't mind killing brown and black people to do it.