Politicizing the coronavirus is hazardous to our national health
One of the most frustrating things about the protests aimed at reopening the economy ... is that we all ultimately want the same thing. We want to resume what used to be business as usual.
The problem is that we all have different ideas about reopening times.
"I'm with everybody," said President Donald Trump when asked about it in a Sunday news conference. "I'm with everybody."
Right. That was the same day that a man and woman in Denver, who identified themselves as health care workers, dressed in full scrubs and with masks, made international news by standing silently with their arms crossed to block a line of cars and trucks.
As captured by a news photographer, Alyson McClaran, the scene echoed the iconic "Tank Man" who faced off against Chinese tanks in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
Colorado, along with Ohio, Minnesota and Kentucky, among other states, saw similar protests. In Illinois, a group called Reopen Illinois plans to hold rallies in Springfield and Chicago on May 1. On its Facebook page, the group says it trusts "the people to make the best decisions on how to protect our own livelihoods and businesses."
President Trump had faced criticism from governors in both parties over tweets he posted on Friday that appeared to support the protests.
"LIBERATE MICHIGAN!," "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!," and "LIBERATE VIRGINIA," he said in three of several tweets directed to states in which protests occurred.
His "LIBERATE" message was unusual for a head of state, especially since the liberation presumably would be from state governors in the nation over which he presides as chief executive. But, as we all know by now, Trump is an unusual president.
But the president insisted during the White House Coronavirus Task Force news conference that he was not taking sides. Right.
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