{"id":42381,"date":"2020-04-22T19:50:08","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T19:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=42381"},"modified":"2020-04-22T19:50:08","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T19:50:08","slug":"disease-reveals-partisan-divide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=42381","title":{"rendered":"Disease reveals partisan divide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=partisandivide%20%23CollinCounty%20%23pandemic%20%23TexasTribune&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/pandemic-300x200-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-42193\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/pandemic-300x200-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I never thought I would see such a thing.<\/p>\n<p>A viral infection sweeps around the world, killing hundreds of thousands of human beings; nearly 50,000 Americans have died. It&#8217;s the kind of international tragedy that <em>transcends<\/em> partisan politics. Isn&#8217;t that right?<\/p>\n<p><em>Hah! Hardly.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The argument in this country on how to battle this disease is being split along partisan lines. Democrats are arguing in favor of continued restrictions, seeking to protect citizens&#8217; health and their very lives. Republicans argue that the restrictions are strangling our economy, that we need to revive the business and manufacturing to jumpstart our way of life.<\/p>\n<p>I am going to side with the Democrats. I know. That&#8217;s no surprise. It&#8217;s where I line up.<\/p>\n<p>Republican governors are moving to relax restrictions. Democratic governors are staying the course. Republican governors think the economy is more vital, I guess, than human lives. Democratic governors seem to think the reverse is true.<\/p>\n<p>Now comes this tidbit from right here in the Dallas\/Fort Worth Metroplex: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2020\/04\/21\/texas-colleyville-reopen-coronavirus\/\">Colleyville is getting ready<\/a> to allow businesses to reopen, apparently in direct violation of Gov. Greg Abbott&#8217;s order to maintain the shelter in place policy at least until April 30; the Colleyville decision also runs counter to what Tarrant County has imposed. Colleyville Mayor Joe Newton plans to relax the restrictions beginning this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>This makes me nervous. It might prompt cities in nearby Collin County, where we live, to follow suit. I am not ready to make that leap. My wife and I are wearing masks on the rare occasions we do venture out. We wipe down every surface we touch and we wash our hands with sanitizer.<\/p>\n<p>I do not have a job. Neither of us has been deprived of household income. So the economy is not a part of our personal decision making.<\/p>\n<p>I just had hoped we could have rallied as one nation to fight this pandemic. Alas, it isn&#8217;t happening. The disease has widened the already huge great divide. <em>Nice!<\/em><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=partisandivide%20%23CollinCounty%20%23pandemic%20%23TexasTribune&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I never thought I would see such a thing. A viral infection sweeps around the world, killing hundreds of thousands of human beings; nearly 50,000 Americans have died. It&#8217;s the kind of international tragedy that transcends partisan politics. Isn&#8217;t that right? Hah! Hardly. The argument in this country on how to battle this disease is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=42381\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Disease reveals partisan divide<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[1063,9236,8026,9261],"class_list":["post-42381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-national-news","tag-collin-county","tag-coronavirus","tag-d-fw-metroplex","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42382,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42381\/revisions\/42382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}