{"id":2457372,"date":"2020-04-18T21:20:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T03:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/mike-littwin-theyre-coming-to-man-the-barricades-and-trump-is-cheering-them-on\/"},"modified":"2020-04-18T21:20:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T03:20:00","slug":"mike-littwin-theyre-coming-to-man-the-barricades-and-trump-is-cheering-them-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/mike-littwin-theyre-coming-to-man-the-barricades-and-trump-is-cheering-them-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Littwin: They\u2019re coming to man the barricades and Trump is cheering them on"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"620\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/littwin-atd-010817.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/littwin-atd-010817.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/littwin-atd-010817-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/littwin-atd-010817-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">There\u2019s apparently a reopen-the-economy demonstration coming to the state Capitol this weekend. I have no problem with protesters. In fact, back in my youth, I was on pretty intimate terms with the not-so-sweet smell of tear gas in the morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But this protest could be dangerous. I know it\u2019s sort of counterintuitive to the very idea of protesting that you worry about taking precautions \u2014 like, in this case, maybe staying in the car instead of marching in the streets. But from the data we have, it\u2019s fair to guess that a certain percentage of protesters would be COVID-19 positive, even if they\u2019re entirely asymptomatic. And by walking around, they could infect others, which is the basis for the statewide stay-at-home orders. And yet, don\u2019t expect this to change anyone\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In fact, the president is now on record encouraging these protests against, as it turns out, mostly Democratic governors. That may not fit neatly into Donald Trump\u2019s acknowledgement Thursday that it will take some time for the country to reopen for business despite the very real and very serious economic costs. But it fits precisely into Trump\u2019s strategy of blame \u2014 that is, blaming someone else. Here\u2019s a guess: Many in the crowd will be wearing MAGA hats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">And then there\u2019s this small irony: No one in the state is more eager to reopen Colorado for business than the governor, Jared Polis. And yet, many Colorado Republican leaders seem to have missed that point, with some actually calling Colorado a police state. I\u2019d like to introduce them to what police states look like.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/at-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">House Minority Leader Patrick Neville took it another step altogether, saying Polis\u2019 policies could lead to a \u201cGestapo-like mentality.\u201d Seems like Neville may have some serious gaps in his knowledge of history \u2014 and that either he didn\u2019t know or just didn\u2019t care how Colorado\u2019s first Jewish governor, who lost family in the Holocaust, might react to being compared to Nazis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But, in brief, the Gestapo, among their other loathsome duties, helped round up Jews and other so-called undesirables and send them to death camps. Polis, meanwhile, is asking people to stay indoors or wear masks if they need to leave the house.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The blame game is now in full force. Trump is back to blaming governors, as you might expect. We know he\u2019s blaming the Chinese (guilty as charged) for not informing the world quickly enough of the novel coronavirus. And yet, Trump was praising China\u2019s response long after the virus became public knowledge and, in any case, long after his own intelligence people had briefed him. Trump also is blaming the World Health Organization (also guilty as charged) for being too China-centric and dictator friendly, although Trump, well, see above. And I can\u2019t help noting that long after the WHO issued full-blast warnings, Trump was still likening the coronavirus to the flu and saying it would likely go away by April or by miraculous intervention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">And now Trump, in his Trumpiest move yet, is aligning himself with insurrection \u2014 or at least protests that defy stay-at-home orders \u2014 in a Friday morning tweeting trifecta:<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cLIBERATE MICHIGAN! \u2026 LIBERATE MINNESOTA! \u2026 LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Glad we got the Second Amendment in there. Maybe he\u2019s talking armed insurrection, but I can say that not everyone thinks it\u2019s funny. Here\u2019s what Washington Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted, in part: \u201cThe president is fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies \u2014 even while his own administration says the virus is real, it is deadly and we have a long way to go before restrictions can be lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Trump\u2019s support for protesters \u2014 I\u2019m old enough to remember when he wanted to punch those protesting at his rallies \u2014 was first registered in his Thursday press briefing when he refused to say whether he\u2019d advise the protesters to stay home. That\u2019s the briefing in which he conceded, without actually conceding, that as president, he doesn\u2019t have \u201ctotal\u201d power and can\u2019t \u201ccall the shots\u201d in reopening a state\u2019s economy. It was only the day before that he was totally saying that total meant total.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In reading the Trump administration\u2019s three-phase suggestions for reopening the economy, doctors and scientists felt the need to note that the guidelines called for far more testing than we\u2019re now capable of doing and far, far, far more contact tracing than we\u2019re now capable of doing. Reopening won\u2019t be easy and, however well you do it, people will die. Which is why, you might guess, Trump gladly reversed himself and handed the job back to the governors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But while telling governors to call the shots, he failed to provide any bullets. He said it was up to the governors to find the needed supplies, ignoring the fact that the only entity capable of achieving that supply scale is the federal government, which has utterly failed. Instead of taking action, Trump acted as if he believed he could talk the virus away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Speaking of Trump beliefs, you may have noticed that he doesn\u2019t talk much any more about the supposed benefits of hydroxychloroquine in treating coronavirus patients. His gut may have shut down on that one. There is, however, potentially good news on that front, with some early evidence \u2014 very early \u2014 that an experimental drug called remdesivir could possibly be helpful. The markets did jump at the news.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">There also is bad news, though. Some rural states where there had been smaller numbers of infections have seen their rates shoot up. According to data compiled by The Johns Hopkins University, Iowa saw an 82% jump in cases in a week, Nebraska a 74% jump, Arkansas 60% and Oklahoma 53%. And we already knew that South Dakota had become a hot spot. Its numbers jumped 205% in a week. The common factor is that each of these states has not issued a stay-at-home directive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">As Trump\u2019s favorite sparring buddy, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, put it in his coronavirus briefing Friday: \u201cThe federal government has passed three bills to address this crisis. Of those three bills, the state governments have gotten precisely zero, zilch, nada in unrestricted aid. That is passing the buck without passing the bucks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It is aid to the states and hospitals that Senate Democrats insist on adding to the Republican bill that would provide $250 billion to the small-business fund, which has already run out of money. Democrats favor finding the money for small businesses, but Mitch McConnell and Trump object to the Democratic add-on, which is strange because Trump\u2019s re-election prospects are directly tied to how this pandemic plays out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">There\u2019s an interesting piece in Vox by German Lopez on the difficulties of knowing when and how to reopen. It\u2019s clear that stay-at-home orders and physical distancing have saved lives, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives. But if you\u2019re doing it right, the doctors tell us, it always looks like you\u2019re overreacting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Lopez quotes Kent State University epidemiologist Tara Smith as saying: \u201cIt\u2019s the paradox of public health. When you do it right, nothing happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">We know the pain accompanied with the shutdown of the economy. We know of the 22 million unemployment claims (including 104,000 in Colorado just last week), the heartbreakingly long lines of people in desperate need of food for their families, the likely loss of family businesses and the human costs of a deep recession.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But we also know, even as the curve seems to be flattening in some places, that the coronavirus has shown it often resurfaces. Dr. Tony Fauci says that safety must always come first in reopening economies. Meanwhile Trump is calling on Americans to man the barricades \u2014 not against the virus, mind you, but against governors or, let\u2019s be honest, anyone but him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">Mike Littwin runs Sundays in the Aspen Times. A former columnist for the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post, he currently writes for ColoradoIndependent.com.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/opinion\/mike-littwin-theyre-coming-to-man-the-barricades-and-trump-is-cheering-them-on\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s apparently a reopen-the-economy demonstration coming to the state Capitol this weekend. I have no problem with protesters. In fact, back in my youth, I was on pretty intimate terms with the not-so-sweet smell of tear gas in the morning. But this protest could be dangerous. I know it\u2019s sort of counterintuitive to the very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2457372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 02:56:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2457372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}