Death Then, Death Now, Death To Come

Former Missouri senator may have a point: 

As @clairecmc says:

"He is running a campaign based on fear and panic... The only reason he lied to the American people is that he wanted to protect the stock market..” pic.twitter.com/MwYbF40Wh3

— RoxieMoxie (@RoxieMoxie4) September 10, 2020

One reason we know that is because President Trump did not tell Bob Woodward that he wanted to avoid panic. Rather, on March 19 he had contended "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic."  Not "I don't want to create panic" or "hysteria" but I don't want to create a panic. Use of the phrase "a panic" traditionally has referred to the stock market.

Moreover, the time to avoid creating a panic is well over. Whatever panicking- and rising to the occasion would have been more likely- would have resulted, there can be no panic six months later. Panics occur when individuals first learn of a problem.

There are at least two other reasons we know that the President was concerned about hysteria. Clearly, his campaign is based, as it was four years ago, upon frightening people. That's why he has claimed "They want to indoctrinate our children, defund our police, abolish the suburbs, incite riots and leave every city at the mercy of the radical left." And then Democrats will put Cory Booker in charge because, well, Booker is black.

Additionally, though, it's because Chris Hayes only states the obvious:

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 14, 2020

That would be the rally Sunday inside Xtreme Manufacturing in Henderson, Nevada, a state in which the governor has restricted indoor gatherings to 50. on Sunday. Approximately 5600 people, most of them maskless, roaring approval of the President. This was held not despite the danger of spreading Covid-19 nor in reckless disregard of the peril.  Nevada governor Sisolak observed the President "taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada." That was the point.

President Trump may or may not have been thinking of the stock market when he claimed concern about "a panic."  But a panic would have, if nothing else, resulted in fewer deaths than the ever-mounting toll Trump is responsible for. If you think what your core supporters believe is "bull_ _ _ _" and deceased veterans are mere "losers" or "suckers," their death is less a bug than a benefit.

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