MONITOR: Election 2020
Republican Governors Aren’t Taking the Pandemic Seriously
Their reasoning for not issuing shelter-in-place orders flies in the face of logic
Despite the fact that the U.S. has surpassed China in its number of Covid-19 cases, the Trump administration continues to downplay the crisis and dismiss the notion of a nationwide measure to slow the spread. To counteract the federal government’s recklessness, the vast majority of state governors have now issued statewide shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders, which require residents to remain at home unless they are essential workers or carrying out necessary activities (such as getting food or medicine). On Wednesday, Republican governors in Mississippi, Florida, and Georgia, who had previously abstained from taking this kind of executive action, finally caved. They now join other states in enforcing more aggressive, statewide mandates to flatten the curve.
Since January 2017, Trump’s presidency has highlighted the stark differences between red and blue state politics. Democratically controlled states have the ability to shield themselves from extreme right-wing governance. In the wake of anti-immigration executive orders, for example, they can offer sanctuary. In the face of climate change denialism, they can enact…
