I never in a zillion years would have imagine mask-wearing becoming a political wedge issue, something to divide Americans along partisan lines.

Who knew?

The world is caught in the grip of a pandemic that has killed 125,000 Americans. More of us are going to die and many more than that are going to get sick. Medical experts advising Donald Trump keep telling us to wear surgical masks to protect ourselves and, more importantly, others around us.

Still, Republicans have lined up on the side that hates the masks. Democrats line up against them, saying that masks are necessary to help keep us safe.

No flash here, but I am siding with Democrats.

However, the issue for my wife and me isn’t that Democrats favor wearing masks. The issue rests squarely on the effectiveness of mask-wearing. I believe Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, two of the infectious disease gurus advising Donald Trump, who tell us masks are an essential part of the overall strategy to fight COVID-19.

The nimrods out there who side with Donald Trump aren’t having it. They say they don’t care about the risks to themselves. What about the risk to others? What the hell kind of message are they sending to the rest of the nation? That they don’t care about anyone else, either?

The upshot of this, I suppose, is that it speaks directly and distinctly to the hideous political divide that has infected so much of our life these days … even those matters that should remain way above and beyond partisan politics.