If it isn't bad enough already that anti-lockdown protesters represent a fringe 14% minority of the public, what's even worse is that their failure to adhere to stay-at-home guidelines could elongate the need for the rest of us to, yes, stay at home.
"The worst irony that could come about from these demonstrations is that they force us to stay in this posture longer than we're already planning to," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told MSNBC Thursday. "It's the last thing any of us wants."
Damn right: The last thing any of us wants is a longer lockdown period, and yet that could easily be the result of protesters swarming the steps of state Capitols like they did in Michigan. While some of these agitators have adhered to social distancing guidelines of staying 6 feet apart and wearing masks, many others haven't. Not to mention the fact that the traffic jams protesters created in Lansing, Michigan, snarled the city's main streets, creating potential hurdles for ambulances trying to rush patients to nearby hospitals for urgent care.
But what's most baffling about all this, as Whitmer points out, is the fact that their protests may actually backfire on all of us, stringing out the lockdowns and further harming the economy and the families who absolutely need to get back to work—but safely.
In fact, wealthy conservative groups have had a "quiet hand" in stoking and organizing almost all of the anti-lockdown protests, according to investigative reports in both The New York Times and The Washington Post. So the very people who are calling for America to reopen for business—specifically including Donald Trump and his allies—are actually endangering Americans by spreading the disease and making it less safe for them to return to work.
