This will hurt you more than it hurts me

As Republican elites move towards a “take the punch” strategy, we should be clear precisely who they expect to take the punches (i.e. “not them”):

And Wisconsin’s Republican chief justice just dismissed a coronavirus flare up because it only impacted people who work in meat packing plants and not “the regular folks.”— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) May 5, 2020

You go risk your life working retail, we’ll keep Zooming sums up the prevailing ethos on the right pretty well. https://t.co/3cuV9YH3N4— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 5, 2020

Formally “re-opening the economy” is, by remarkable coincidence, important enough for ordinary workers to sacrifice their lives but not so important that rich white guys should have to. Amazing how it always works out this way.

Before the plane crash that killed multiple members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ronnie Van Zant browbeat Cassie Gaines — the backup singer whose younger bother had joined the band for their last album and would also die in the crash — into boarding the band’s death trap Convair although she was so terrified she had already arranged transportation with the band’s equipment truck. Republican elites are re-enacting this scenario, only with Ronnie chartering a limo to Baton Rouge while the rest of the band takes off. The price of being sober’s being scared out of your mind.