They’re fine with it. All of it.

The Michigan COVID data I downloaded today, based on data through yesterday, definitely shows a downturn in the number of cases per day over the last three weeks. That long ago was about the time a new shutdown order was issued and also about the time schools closed to in-person learning. However, the new cases per day is still quite high. After a peak of 10,155 on about November 9 (and it had been revised upward), there are still high points of 7,700 to 9,500 cases a day. There was a low point of under 2,000 around Thanksgiving before rising back up to 7,700 cases in one day. We probably haven’t yet seen data for infections caused by people gathering on Thanksgiving. And the current shutdown order continues for only four more days. Deaths per day have risen above 100 five times in the last three weeks. Thankfully, people are not dying of COVID like they were back in April. If they were, the deaths per day would be reaching 900, not 100. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos is annoyed by conservatives who describe COVID has having a “99% survival rate.” Yeah, 100 deaths in 10,000 cases is a 1% death rate. What those people don’t talk about is the number of people with long-term symptoms. A study showed about 25% of all patients still had symptoms three months after infection. A European study showed a third of all patients were dependent on a caregiver months after infection. A third of Americans who have been infected is 5 million people. The best way to avoid these long-term problems is to not get infected. Wear your mask. For those interested Sumner also discussed what might be the reason for these long-term symptoms. Mark Sumner reported on a poll by the Washington Post. They asked questions of all 249 GOP members of the House and Senate.

The Post asked these Republicans this simplest possible question: Who won the 2020 election for president? Of those asked, 222 claimed ignorance or refused to say, a condition the survey described as “complicit silence.”

That’s 89%. A second question asked whether the nasty guy should continue his attacks on the democratic process. 232 refused to say. That’s 93%. Sumner concluded:

A month after the election, the outcome isn’t in doubt. It hasn’t really been in doubt since the evening of Election Day itself. But what is on full display is how weak Republicans are, and how they’d rather watch the nation bleed than confront Donald Trump.

A couple quotes from Greg Dworkin’s pundit roundup for Kos views that silence in different ways. First from Greg Sargent from Washington Post discussing David Perdue, one of the GOP candidates in the Georgia runoff elections next month:

It is often claimed that Republicans who refuse to concede Trump’s loss are suffering from “cowardice” or that he has held them “hostage.” In this telling, Republicans secretly know the truth but won’t say so, simply because the political price of weathering his fearsome rage-tweets is too great. … The conceit that “cowardice” is the driving motive here imagines that these Republicans secretly harbor principles that they’d like to honor if only they could do so safely. And while there have been honorable Republicans who have defended our political system at great personal risk, there is just zero indication that Republicans such as Perdue have any such principles.

And Amanda Carpenter writing for The Bulwark:

After four long years, it’s finally time to stop parsing the motivations behind their collective silence and say what the real answer is, which is almost too scary to admit. They’re fine with it. All of it. Really.

Glad to see more people catching on. I and many others figured that out a long time ago. Albert MacGloan tweeted:

Trump is now 1-46 with his lawsuits He’s raised $207,000,000 And only spent $8,800,000 You f---ing fools #MAGA

The other nearly $200 million probably went into his pocket. Ya see, he’s got those $400 million loans to pay off. A year ago when traveling with Brother and Niece she wondered why progressives didn’t sit down with conservatives and talk. What did we have in common? What are our values? What drives us? I’m sure there were other such questions. Out of earshot of Niece, Brother and I talked about her proposal. I thought it was a great idea. He couldn’t see how it would work. I began to see Brother’s view when one of us mentioned a sister-in-law. She lives in Texas (though grew up in Michigan) and is very conservative (for the sake of family peace I won’t ask who she voted for). At one point (perhaps when I was back home and talking through email) I told Niece that to give her idea a try she should talk to her aunt and tell us how it went. Someone in my browsing over the last month linked to an article that discusses the rural – urban divide that was a part of this past election. This divide is more important than Red v. Blue. The author is Jason Pargin, writing for Cracked. He grew up in a rural area and now lives in an urban setting. Interesting that this article was written in October of 2016. Hollywood has long had a shorthand for bad v. good, that being rural v. urban. An example is Star Wars. Luke is a farm boy. Darth Vader lives in a space station that looks like a shiny city. Pargin gave several other examples. And both sides see the other as strange. The city folks say nothing of cultural interest happens outside of cities. The rural folks look down on the city’s weird slang, music, and clothes, the dope fiends who murder everyone, the city’s hyper-aggressive savages and frivolous white elites, the city’s turn away from church and towards bisexual sex parties. In the country a church is where you went for friendship and social support. So how could a city person get by without church? America was built on family, faith, and hard work. How can those values be deemed unfashionable? Yet, the rural areas are getting the s--- kicked out of them. The suicide rate among rural young people is double of the city rate. The recession pounded rural towns, but the recovery went to the cities. Towns are based on one big local business. When it dies so does the town. A city can replace manufacturing jobs with service jobs. Towns can’t. Many downtowns were devastated by the competition from Wal-Mart. Not only are residents feeling hopeless they can’t afford to move to the city and can’t afford to live there if the do.

The rural folk with the Trump signs in their yards say their way of life is dying, and you smirk and say what they really mean is that blacks and gays are finally getting equal rights and they hate it. But I'm telling you, they say their way of life is dying because their way of life is dying. It's not their imagination. … So yes, they vote for the guy promising to put things back the way they were, the guy who'd be a wake-up call to the blue islands. They voted for the brick through the window. … Everybody wants an asshole on their team -- a spiked bat to smash their enemies with. That's all Trump is. The howls of elite outrage are like the sounds of bombs landing on the enemy's fortress. The louder the better. … It feels good to dismiss people, to mock them, to write them off as deplorables. But you might as well take time to try to understand them, because I'm telling you, they'll still be around long after Trump is gone.