Posted on 03/20/2020 8:18:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Even a disease as far-reaching as the coronavirus hasnt entirely crossed the chasm between red and blue America.
In several key respects, the outbreaks early stages are unfolding very differently in Republican- and Democratic-leaning parts of the country. That disconnect is already shaping, even distorting, the nations response to this unprecedented challengeand it could determine the pandemics ultimate political consequences as well.
A flurry of new national polls released this week reveals that while anxiety about the disease is rising on both sides of the partisan divide, Democrats consistently express much more concern about it than Republicans do, and they are much more likely to say they have changed their personal behavior as a result. A similar gap separates people who live in large metropolitan centers, which have become the foundation of the Democratic electoral coalition, from those who live in the small towns and rural areas that are the modern bedrock of the GOP.
Government responses have followed these same tracks. With a few prominent exceptions, especially Ohio, states with Republican governors have been slower, or less likely, than those run by Democrats to impose restrictions on their residents. Until earlier this week, Donald Trump downplayed the diseases danger and overstated the extent to which the United States had control over it, as the conservative publication The Bulwark recently documented.
Conservative media figures including Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity likewise insisted for weeks that the media and Democrats were exaggerating the danger as a means of weakening Trump. Several Republican elected officials encouraged their constituents to visit bars and restaurants precisely when federal public-health officials were urging the opposite.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
yah, what we need is martial law in flyover country.
also, orange man bad!
Key observations:
* So far, the greatest clusters of the disease, and the most aggressive responses to it, have indeed been centered in a few large, Democratic-leaning metropolitan areas, including Seattle, New York, San Francisco, and Boston.
* On the case-tracking website maintained by Johns Hopkins Universitys Center for Systems Science and Engineering, each of the four states with the largest number of coronavirus cases is a Democratic-leaning place along the coast: New York, Washington, California, and New Jersey.
* Florida, a coastal, internationally oriented state that leans slightly toward the GOP, ranks fifth. Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Texas, each with at least one big urban center that functions as a gateway for tourism and trade, come in next.
* With only a few exceptions, the states with the fewest number of confirmed cases are smaller, Republican-leaning ones between the coasts, with fewer ties to diverse populations and the global economy. That list includes Wyoming, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
Key observations:
* So far, the greatest clusters of the disease, and the most aggressive responses to it, have indeed been centered in a few large, Democratic-leaning metropolitan areas, including Seattle, New York, San Francisco, and Boston.
* On the case-tracking website maintained by Johns Hopkins Universitys Center for Systems Science and Engineering, each of the four states with the largest number of coronavirus cases is a Democratic-leaning place along the coast: New York, Washington, California, and New Jersey.
* Florida, a coastal, internationally oriented state that leans slightly toward the GOP, ranks fifth. Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Texas, each with at least one big urban center that functions as a gateway for tourism and trade, come in next.
* With only a few exceptions, the states with the fewest number of confirmed cases are smaller, Republican-leaning ones between the coasts, with fewer ties to diverse populations and the global economy. That list includes Wyoming, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
Large urban areas, with folks stacked on top of one another like cord wood, are petri-dishes for the spread of disease.
The 50 states need to embrace the rural landscape again, wherever possible.
We are going to one or two restaurants or stores a day. Restaurants we take out and stores we walk through.
We are in a low risk age group with almost no overt health issues, though. We also take our supplements and eat lower carb.
We take it equally seriously but most of us are not falling for the media panic.
Well...yes. The “Red” areas are much less dense in their populations and more spread out. “Blue” areas very dense population wise, similar to the countries where the spread of the virus spiraled out of control.
It’s a given that the Stupid Half will panic. Coincidentally, thems Democraps... You see the ones with twelve packs of TP, and a shopping cart of pasta, and they are the ones with Bernie stickers on their cars...
More than half the cases and over 60 percent of fatalities so far have been in three states: New York, Washington, and California. And even then, they are very localized. That’s why resources and the balance of quarantine vs. economic activity should be targeted.
For example, 56 percent of the Washington state cases are in King County, and when the two neighboring counties are factored in, they account for almost all the cases. 85 percent of the deaths were in King County, of which more than half were in one nursing home. Almost all the deaths are in metro Seattle.
As of Tuesday, 56 percent of the NY cases were in NYC, nearly all of them in metro NYC with the exception of a known anomalous outbreak in Westchester County.
In California and other Western states, the numbers are very much driven by the homeless population. Roughly half the cases in San Francisco are among the homeless.
We need to tailor the quarantine to where its needed most, and that will dictate the economic outcomes.
“conservative publication The Bulwark” - Oh, please.
All of the Asian countries, such as Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, have already bent the curve, with less economic pain. Even in Washington state, which was the inception and epicenter of the epidemic in the United States, the number of new cases appear to be declining. Washington began with the disruptions and distancing before anyone else, and while the fallout is severe and the deaths are more than in any other state, the state is beginning to see a downward trajectory.
Then there is geography. Most of the outbreaks are clustered in urban areas and most pronounced in a few parts of the country. This is largely going to depend on decisions by governors and local officials, but not every part of the country requires as severe a shutdown.
South Korea got the epidemic under control in less than a month without shutting down its entire economy. The country went into crisis mode around February 20 and began bending the trajectory after the first week in March. Yes, its possible it could take longer in some parts of our country, but not in others, and certainly not for 18 months. So why is our government panicking to legislate under that assumption? Because policymakers are pandering to industries, and they are also trying to use the crisis to implement dependency-inducing and liberty-squelching policies theyve long sought anyway.
A lot of the BS from these politicians across the board involve takings that are unconstitutional. People who have spent a lifetime building businesses will not sit around and watch those businesses become bankrupt without a fight. The clock is ticking......
They will spread it.
I don’t recall being encouraged to go to bars and restaurants. As for differences between red and blues states, it is more a difference between metro vs rural areas.
Brownstein is a rabid leftist. Worked for the LA Slime, and other publications. This is a classic buffoon who sees everything through a leftist lens. Don’t believe a damn thing this idiot says.
It’s travel from New York that makes there be consideration of nationwide lockdown and travel ban.
It just needs to be no travel from NYC environs, San Francisco and Chicago.
CC
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.