Red Governors Take the Blue Pill
By 
Anyone notice anything peculiar about the states that have no stay in place order?
True, there are some Democratic states – Pennsylvania and Nevada – but, generally, we’re looking at states with Republican governors who apparently apply a different value to human life. Republican governors must take the President’s theory of the human body as a non-rechargeable battery to heart; which is to say that, given the fatality rate of COVID-19 as affecting the old and the sick to a greater extent, the potential value of those lives is simply less. This must be why, in these times of public health emergencies, Republicans are trying to place restrictions on abortions. The unborn representing, of course, fully charged batteries.
It’s all very Matrix-like.
In an unpublished recent paper, Adolph et al show that states with Republican governors are likely to delay their state level social distancing orders by 1.68 days, which, in the time of pandemic, means some amount of lives. Republican governors in states with high numbers of Trump voters delay their state-level social distancing by 2.7 days. Importantly, they show that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has a comparatively much smaller effect on social distancing orders. In other words: the Republican Party takes longer to respond to the obvious. Trump is truly their leader.
As can be seen in the NYT graphic above at the top, there are still states that have not issued statewide stay in place orders (distinct from social distancing). The Governor of Nebraska, despite pleas from the nonpartisan (but certainly Republican) unicameral legislature, has not issued a stay in place order. I mean, come on. The guys’s last name is Ricketts.
Of course this is just one stage of the massive economic and health crisis that is COVID-19. People will be out of work and likely more folks will fall into poverty. States that have delayed responses to COVID-19 are also those that did not expand Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Thus, when people find themselves sick, out of work, or both, the state has nothing for them. The true impacts will be felt over time to vulnerable populations in these states after national attention to the issue has faded (at least somewhat).
Throughout this entire debacle, the Kentucky Republican delegation in Congress has been in a deadly feud over who can be the worst person in America. (Dr.) Rand Paul met with members of the senate, worked out, and even went fucking swimming while showing symptoms of coronavirus. Paul put many of his fellow members of Congress at risk through these activities. Thomas Massie, in response, raised the bar by requiring members of the House who were staying in place to fly back to DC to vote on stimulus funding. Mitch McConnell, Yertle the Turtle of Kentucky, climbed to the top today in claiming that Democrats were to blame for the lack of response, not the President, because of the impeachment proceedings in January.
It makes sense why Republicans have pushed so hard to recognize corporations as people.
They clearly do not value human life.