Round 2

“…..we are on our own, and the vacuum seditious Presidential indifference and laziness creates is not only dangerous to our health, but very bad for business as well. Expect whoever leads your state to either ruin you by mindlessly following MAGA nihilism, or try desperately to save you by cobbling together state and local coalitions, collaborating with an aim to find some workable balance without resources or guidance, simply doing the best they can.”

The DR

Life usually affords us second chances on the mistakes we make, although often, when it doesn’t, the price is painful. Every day we can read about a promster, who figured he was just a bit buzzed…. you know the rest. Or a dad who just once forgot his baby was in the back seat because he had a big proposal. Maybe an accomplice who didn’t listen to common sense, or a woman who went on a date with a guy she didn’t feel quite right about. Those who say God has a sense of humor and forgiving nature never walked in those shoes. No doubt most all would give anything for another chance. Repeating the same mistake twice? That’s a pattern, and generally very costly.

Were one to search for President Trump’s “Mini Me” among the now thriving MAGA political class, you couldn’t do better than Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey. Although elected to office in 2014, prior to Trump’s ascendency, Ducey ran for re-election proudly espousing his fealty to Trump, and embracing all the usual suspects… the right to own a bazooka, Handmaiden’s Tale sensibilities on abortion, the only good tax is no tax, build the wall, etc. etc.

Moreover, like Mr. Art-of-the-Deal, Ducey was first a businessman, who began in sales and marketing, eventually becoming the CEO of artery-adversary Stone Cold Creamery. In full Trumpian fashion, when Ducey campaigned for the governorship he boasted of a business career that was the very epitome of “an American success story.” And, with the in-your-face bravado our President would surely admire, Ducey gave a big middle finger to reporters’ efforts to seek transparency as to his conduct heading up Stone Cold Creamery. “Fake news” was Ducey’s battle cry well before Trump descended down the escalator.

And why not? The facts were not necessarily friendly to his political ambitions, at odds with the narrative he spun on the campaign stump. When Ducey and his partner sold Stone Cold Creamery in 2007 for $80 million, the buyer, Kahala Corporation, thought they were getting a robust brand supported by 1400 franchisees. What quickly became clear was the business model Ducey sold to startups had serious viability issues, as a wave of defaults underscored. Ducey blamed the recession, but was glad to put the issue behind him and settle for $16 million less at arbitration. During the AZ Governor’s race in 2014, Ducey went full Trump, refusing to release the company’s financials for public review. And, like Trump, there seemed a limitless number of personal stories from investors with little good to say about Ducey as either a businessman or human being.

Now the stakes are a bit higher, but Ducey doesn’t seem any more interested in best practices or transparency. When Trump came to visit last week, Ducey was ready sans mask with a hearty handshake, even as a White House valet tested positive for Covid-19. After all, taking one, or seven, for the team is rule numero uno if one wants a “great” relationship with this President. Of course, Ducey putting himself at risk is one thing, dooming the people who elected him to Coronavirus misery by actually shutting down the work of his state’s own virus task force because its findings aren’t what he wants to hear quite another. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but hey, this is ridiculous!

Ducey’s own health department had convened an impressive group of experts hailing from both the academic and health care arenas in late March with a mandate to develop advanced modeling and project the trend of cases in the state. The team’s estimates guided initial policy with social distancing recommendations, which helped control cases and move the curve in the right direction.

Now, however, with Trump pushing MAGA governors hard to get the ball rolling on his re-election campaign’s economic recovery theme, regardless of where their case loads fall vis-a-vis the White House’s own guidance, objective analysis is inconvenient. That’s because all of it emphatically concludes how reckless reopening is, and the disastrous consequences it will produce.

Ducey’s reaction? Shut them down! No news is good news. Six weeks ago the modelers were viewed as indispensable and provided “full, unfettered access” to all resources they would require for accurate assessments. Last Monday night, the day before Trump’s visit, they were ordered to stand down in favor of what Ducey’s state health department suits termed “ real time information.” In other words, let’s just cross our fingers and see how things go.

In an understatement for our times, Arizona Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick called the move “troubling.” Really? My belt’s last hole failing to keep it from strangling my record width waistline is troubling; this outrage begs stronger modifiers. Ducey’s team now says they will rely on federal numbers – i.e. those blessed by the White House – moving forward. Predictably, what most bothered Ducey about the state team’s reports was they were public and accessible, beyond his reach to alter or ignore. That won’t be a problem now, Trump will take care of all that. After all, he is “giving our wonderful governors all the help they ask for.” Indeed.

Arizona has over 10K Covid-19 infections with more than 500 deaths. It’s beginning to trend down but is certainly not out of the woods, and doesn’t qualify under the guidelines laid out by the Pence Task Force. That hardly mattered to Trump when he visited this week, heralding the termination of social distancing as a fawning Ducey looked on. He’s not the only one determined to cook the books and ignore good science to ingratiate himself to the President. In Iowa experts have pleaded with Governor Kim Reynolds to keep businesses shuttered, stressing it’s still too early to open things up and will surely undo hard won progress in reducing the state’s exposure if she does. But after a personal audience with Trump at the White House, Reynolds was having none of it, and it’s full speed ahead, as Iowans “lead by example.”

A detailed accounting in Rolling Stone Magazine provides an ugly picture of shocking incompetence, if not criminal negligence, by top Trump Administration decision makers as Covid-19 infected America. Even so, more than a month of social distancing and the shutdown of much of American life is proving successful in flattening the curve and sparing us from the worst-case horrors that would have resulted from continuing business as usual. Now that’s exactly what Trump and MAGA lackeys like Ducey are determined to force us back to.

Listening to the reprehensible Rand Paul insult Dr. Fauci today, declaring “you aren’t the end-all” of Covid-19 guidance, clarified the GOP’s intention to decide just how expendable American lives are in the quest to patch up the economy for general election sloganeering. The new MAGA/GOP approach is to ignore that shutting down the US kept Covid-19 deaths to “only” 80,000 and counting, while forwarding the Orwellian proposition that such a modest number proves the whole threat was overblown in the first place. In other words, ignore that shutting things down prevented a health catastrophe, but blame it for creating an economic disaster. Honestly, with public servants like that who needs enemies? Round 2 is going to be very ugly. Stay inside. BC