April 16th 2020

By Thom Hartmann

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who is not only having to deal with a massive coronavirus of outbreak but also with a right wing anti-quarantine revolt funded, according to the New York Times, in part by the DeVos family, pointed out that the enemy here is not each other, but is the virus. Donald Trump and the Republican party don’t see it that way. Because solving the virus problem will require government and institutional help, something Republicans haven’t believed in since 1981.

Instead, all they have left is finding somebody else to blame, and new ways to divide the American people against each other. Blame the World Health Organization, blame the governors, blame the Chinese, blame anybody and everybody you can in order to avoid taking responsibility, because that would mean that you would have to work with scientists and mobilize government to do something positive and useful, which may end up raising taxes on billionaires. The big question now is how far the fire of the right wing revolt against public health will spread, and how much gasoline ”conservative” billionaires will continue to pour onto it.

Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of The Hidden History of the War on Voting and more than 30 other books in print. His most recent project is a science podcast called The Science Revolution. He is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute.