Much Adoing About Nothing

I LIVE IN a deep red state, which, had the two political parties not switched colors several decades ago, would be deep blue now. Or, looked at another way, if my state had not slowly switched political parties over the past fifty five years, would be deep red today, but would be the other political party than the one it now is. Trump beat Hillary by twenty here, the governor is a conservative Republican, all all its congressional representatives are republican. I attended no fewer than seven black lives matter racial justice and equality protests here, so progressive is not dead, merely a bit hard to find, at times. The most recent protests have come from the other end of the political spectrum. Conservatives here, as they are nation wide, are unhappy with being told that they must wear a face mask in public. they consider it an unacceptable infringement on their rights. Down main street in several local towns they are marching proudly, most of them carrying American flags, none of them wearing masks, carrying signs which say things like "we the people", and "I can't breathe",  demonstrating their stubbornness and cleverness. From a progressive point of view, it is admittedly somewhat refreshing to see people other than us protesting something. makes us look a bit less bitchy, as it were. On the other had, haven't these people any greater concerns than whether they should be required by government to wear a face mask during an epidemic for the sake of public safety? Why don't they just put masks on, to save lives, and shut the heck up? Maybe they could protest something important, something worth protesting, like the failure of government to do anything about climate change. however, since they don't believe in climate change, that seems unlikely. Or possibly they could join the progressive and protest racial inequality and systemic racism in America. But, alas, they don't believe that exists either. We are oeft to hope that they decide to stop protesting a perfectly sensible piece of leadership from their own party's governor, put on their masks, and, to avoid suffocating, stop talking.