I’ve been having a scary thought recently. Maybe it’s just me being naturally cynical about the GOP and Trump and their motives. It’s not that they are merely incompetent, they are also recklessly uncaring and deeply entrenched in their belief that the left is out to get them. They’ve sold their base on being angry with us lefties. Accused us of treason and every other vile thing you can think of. They’ve circled the wagons and called out the dogs, and the guns, and the racists and the racists with guns and dogs and made them all believe we are the enemy. They’ve made them believe we will steal the election and do whatever it takes to take down Trump.
Oh yes the election. It’s coming, and right now the GOP is in for a major shellacking according to many prognosticators. They obviously can’t allow that to happen so what’s the solution? We know they will do most anything to hold on to power. They’ll lie, cheat, kick people off the voting rolls They’ll hold up Supreme Court seats and then stack the courts with everyone they can as fast as they can. They aren’t in this just to win. They are in it to entrench themselves in power for as long as they can. They are backed by powerful corporations and even America’s longtime enemies.
So what’s one more line to cross? After all, once you’ve bellied up to Putin’s bar and pocketed the envelope the rest seems relatively tame. So what else can they do to stack the deck? How can they find a way to swing the odds further in their favor? And here comes the Coronavirus. It’s expected to kill 1-3% of the people who catch it depending on where they live, what their socioeconomic outlook is and how closely packed together they live and we are already seeing those results. We know where it is having its worst impacts — major cities. Places like Detroit, Atlanta, Philly, Milwaukee, Miami, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Houston and even Charlotte are going to get hit hard if they aren’t already. Of course New York and LA and other cities will be hit also, but let’s focus on the ones in the “swing states”.
What happens to the outcome of the election, which will be decided by ~2% in 10 or so states, if you allow 1-3% of the voters in major Dem strongholds in those same states to die? What percentage of Michigan’s population lives in the major cities in the southern end of the state? We know those voters are going to vote Dem big time. How many dead voters will it take in Detroit and Lansing to swing the state to Trump? How many in Milwaukee and Madison to hold on to Wisconsin? How many in Atlanta to keep Georgia reliably red? How many in Houston to ensure that TX never goes blue? How many in Charlotte and Miami and Las Vegas to make sure those states don’t flip back to the Dems and Trump stays in power?
Am I crazy? Am I paranoid? Am I just tired and cynical? I hope it’s the last one, but there’s a part of me that believes this is what’s happening and the GOP is neck deep in allowing American citizens to die on purpose so they can hold on to power. I hope I’m wrong. I so hope I’m wrong, but there’s a part of me that believes there’s nothing they won’t do and that they truly don’t care if we live or we die. We’re the moochers. We’re the scam artists. We’re not worthy or pure or even truly American. We’re the dregs of the species. We’re not even human… So honestly, who cares if a few hundred thousand of us die?
And then as I roll my eyes at myself and try to crack a smile and shake my head and say, “Jim, you’ve finally lost it”, a second thought comes right behind… what if I’m right?