Death Cult

A friend of mine wondered: "Imagine gambling with your life - and losing - in order to make Donald Trump feel a tiny bit more validated for one evening." He was referencing the death of Herman Cain, politician and businessman, who ran for president in 2012. Coronavirus killed him. Mister Cain was one of those Trump supporters in attendance at the Tulsa rally back in June. Health officials have determined that the spike in COVID-19 cases was in direct correlation with that event, including eight of Trump's advance staff testing positive afterward.
My reply to my friend's wonder was one word: "Can't."
This game of brinkmanship with public health evades me. It seems that barely a day goes by when there is not a sad story to tell about someone who had insisted that the pandemic was a hoax or overblown or "no worse than the flu" is diagnosed with the virus, many of them dying as a result. The day before Herman Cain passed, Turning Point USA announced that their co-founder had died form coronavirus complications. The conservative youth group quickly deleted a Tweet from their account posted just the day before that mocking the suggestion that people wear masks to avoid the spread of the disease.
And the list goes on. It should be noted that in a country that has now seen more than one hundred fifty thousand deaths due to the pandemic that continues to affect all of us that there would be plenty of stories like this. Like Texas Representative Louie Gohmert who suggested that it was wearing a mask that gave him his own case of COVID-19. This came after months of insisting that he didn't need to wear a mask because he was tested frequently. The GOP congressman reportedly went back to his office on Capitol Hill after receiving his positive test result to inform his staff. In person. There has been some talk about how the virus may affect brain function, but I don't believe we can blame the germs for this one.
Instead, we are stuck in a time where flaunting the recommendations of doctors and health officials is a symbol of "freedom." Never mind that this liberty comes at the cost of every other living, breathing soul on the continent. The Constitution says nothing about wearing a mask, so you can't make me. It is precisely after these edicts that the clock starts ticking. How many minutes until the next case is added to the roll? One more shot at tragic irony. One more dead American. One more day that we all have to remain vigilant while those who insist that this pandemic is cooked up by bad people who only wish the "president" harm.
Last time I checked, the "president" was fine. It's the people around him who are dropping like flies.