The Expendables

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“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. . . . The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. . . . And he has lifted them up.” — Hillary Clinton, on the campaign trail, September 10, 2016.

Which is worse, “deplorable” or “expendable”? Many believe that Hillary’s “deplorables” rant helped Trump, a perennially bankrupt loser in business, win the White House. But what if your words and actions imply that peoples’ very health and lives are expendable? Isn’t that even worse?

We’re about to find out.

Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s “back to normal” order covers, as a first priority, salons, gyms, bowling alleys, barber shops, tattoo parlors and certain other businesses. They can reopen tomorrow, Friday, April 24. Theaters and dine-in restaurants get to reopen only next Monday.

So what’s special about salons, gyms, bowling alleys, barber shops, and tattoo parlors? Why call them out at all? Far more people, on average, go to dine-in restaurants and theaters than any of these. What’s the point of treating these odd businesses specially and putting them first?

Lots of people use gyms. Many upscale customers even have memberships. But with a little discipline and imagination, you can exercise at home, or outdoors, maintaining social distancing. What kind of people, other than their owners, are so eager to get back to exercising in gyms, where social distancing is much harder, and where you have to disinfect every machine before you use it just to avoid the common cold and the seasonal flu, let alone Covid-19?

Maybe Kemp thinks that avid gym patrons, like people who go to bowling alleys and tattoo parlors, are “his” people—the kind of non-college-educated whites who drive pickup trucks with the Stars and Bars or gun racks in the windows. Maybe he thinks they, or at least the white ones, are libertarians, Republicans and Trump supporters.

Then there are the African-Americans. It’s well known that their hair salons and barber shops are venerable community gathering places, especially in the South. Probably few African-Americans are Kemp fanciers. But it never hurts to throw a “hail Mary” pass, or try to confuse the rubes. If just a few change their minds it might sway the next election.

So isn’t the political point self-evident? Apparently Kemp thinks that those who patronize these “special” businesses are “his” people, or Donald Trump’s, or that they can be tricked. He wants their support and their votes, so he’s putting them first in line to open up the Georgia economy too soon and to risk catching the bug.

What other reason could there be? In no way does any of these businesses qualify as “essential” to a modern economy or to anyone’s supply chain. Something like this is just what you’d expect of a guy who won the governorship of Georgia after claims of unprecedented voter suppression and a conflict of interest as Georgia’s Secretary of State.

Most experts say opening so soon is unwise. It just risks a renewed flare-up of cases and deaths. And who would be its first victims? They would be the people who patronize and own Kemp’s prioritized businesses. To the extent that they smoke, are old, or have serious health conditions, they would be the first at risk to sicken seriously and to die.

The experts say such a second wave of infections will take several weeks to crest. Maybe Kemp doubts that this cohort of people would make the logical connection. Maybe he thinks they lack the intelligence and self-protective instincts to connect the dots. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that he thinks they’re expendable.

But Covid-19 sickness, which can be permanently debilitating, is hard to “spin.” So is death. Survivors and loved ones left behind have the rest of their lives to contemplate cause and effect: their getting their recreation and jobs back, their raucous libertarian protests, and their political support for the right wing, in exchange for becoming cannon fodder in the political war to reopen Georgia’s economy.

It would be quite another thing if Kemp’s order came up with lot of money, equipment and people for a full-court press on testing, contract tracing and quarantining. But that’s not the case. Kemp has no medical degree or expertise in epidemiology. He’s simply decided, in his political wisdom, that he can win politically among certain demographics by opening Georgia up for business now, regardless of consequences. If that makes the target groups “expendable,” so be it.

So stay home and stay safe, folks! No one in this country is really “expendable” except for pols who think their voters are. Come November, they’ll see just how expendable they are. (Unfortunately, Kemp is not up for re-election this fall, but others of his ilk are.)

Endnote: As if on cue, the Washington Post reports that the Covid-19 pandemic is now invading “Red” states, putting Trump’s and Kemp’s supporters right in the virus’ crosshairs. We’re about to find out whether the propaganda of the President, Fox and Sinclair will be enough to negate the evidence of their own and their loved ones’ sickness and death. This is how the heavy veil of lies may finally be torn asunder.

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