As I write this, Democrats are tearing their hair out, fearing Trump is going to steal the election, the country, and we’re all gonna die.
Well, we do die. But Trump is going to fail. No matter what he does, Trump is going to fail.
I know this because I know his opponent, and his opponent can’t fail.
His opponent is the virus.
The virus doesn’t do politics. The virus doesn’t care what you think about it. The virus only cares about whether it can find new hosts and reproduce. The virus may not even be alive, according to many scientists. It’s just a strand of RNA.
We know how to stop the virus. Most countries have stopped it, or at least slowed it down considerably. Stay apart. Avoid crowded, indoor spaces. Wear the damned mask.
It works everywhere it has been tried. The political and economic system makes no difference.
What does make a difference is whether you decide to make an issue of the science, if you defy the science, and thus spread the virus. If you make science a political issue, the virus is coming for you.
I went shopping to a home improvement store for a ceiling fan recently. Most people were wearing masks. But not all people. These two white assholes, wearing dirty t-shirts, ripped jeans, and long hair from the 1970s, casually strolled the aisles unmasked. Freedom, they would say.
Here’s the thing. Science says that when you’re walking around unmasked, the droplets from your breathing, coughing, belching, speaking, or sneezing can travel about 6 feet before falling to the ground. It’s like a gun that fires 6 feet. If you don’t have the virus it’s harmless, you’re shooting blanks If you do, even if you don’t know it, you’re firing a loaded gun. You’re shooting everyone around you with virus particles. People don’t develop symptoms for a week and some never do. But that’s what it amounts to. Not a right to bear arms, but a claimed right to fire a machine gun indiscriminately. That’s not ordered liberty. It’s worse than anarchy. It’s the oppression by the brazen of everyone else. It’s jungle law.
A mask offers only partial protection. A mask stops 50% of the particles coming at it, usually within that 6 foot radius. If both people in an interaction are masked, it’s 75%. If you just walk by someone, there’s not enough time for a full viral load to pass when it’s cut 75% by masks.
If we had a government that followed science, there would be social pressure applied to the assholes. The store manager would feel empowered to challenge them. They would be shamed. They would mask up, even if grudgingly. Grudging or not doesn’t matter. What matters is stopping the bullets.
But that’s not happening. So, the virus continues to spread. In my home state of Georgia 10 of every 100 COVID tests are coming back positive. That’s 10 times the rate in New York, which has fought the good fight.
Republican governments are unwilling to stop the spread. This means a substantial percentage of us, mostly in places with Republican state governments, are spreading the virus. People will keep getting sick, people will keep dying, people will keep getting disabled in these places, in numbers no one will be able to ignore, for months to come.
That means restaurants in these states won’t be opening. It means small stores will remain shut. It means no bars, and certainly no ball games. There will be no college football. Sorry, Jerry Jones, no NFL. There will be no one to blame for this except those who denied science.
I guarantee that in this environment, most Americans will walk barefoot over broken glass to get to the polls. There is also no way tech is going to let this just happen.
This is where we get to the Senator from California.
As I have been writing for nearly two years now, Kamala Harris is tech’s Senator. Her priorities are their priorities. We like to pretend that conservatives are pro-business while liberals are anti-business, but that’s just not true. When money rains down from the clouds, brains are the gating factor to growth. Tech needs brains. A brain-dead polity will kill tech, destroy its fortunes, and eliminate the human capital it needs. Liberal policies are good for tech. Where you find tech, you find Democrats.
Republicans didn’t want to admit they were in the pocket of oil 40 years ago. President Carter ran against oil. Oil was in bad odor with many Republicans then, just as tech is in bad odor with many Democrats now. But winning means aligning with growth, tech is growing, and the alliance between Democrats and tech was just cemented.
To me, it means things are going to happen. Good things. Quiet things. The election is going to happen. Trump won’t be able to stop it, any more than the Grinch could stop Christmas from coming to Whoville. If he destroys the postal service people will show up at polling places. Before he tries to lose votes hordes of lawyers will descend on election officials. The vote will be so overwhelming he’ll have no choice. I suspect Georgia will be called for Biden at 7 PM on November 3. It will all be over but the shouting. There will be a lot of shouting.
Every inane thing Trump is doing just makes the anger grow. Every anti-science thing Trump’s acolytes do will get people killed and depress his vote. You’re going to see a ton of gaslighting over the next few months, but the future cake is baked.
We’re heading into a new era. Be ready for it. Thank the virus for it.
