The coronavirus is the latest thing to highlight our two countries.
We have the big cities that are still locked down, and the suburban and rural communities that are not. We have the blue states where governors continue with their restrictions, and we have red states where people are allowed some conveniences. And we have the most 2020 split of all, we have the haves and the have nots.
Brietbart has a piece that focuses on that split.
Today, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are seeing power-hypocrisy once again, as politicians and plutocrats live one way, while telling everyone else to live another way.
The piece starts. It goes on to talk about Gavin Newsom and his party at the French Laundry, and the hypocrisy that is on full display.
This is not new, or news. If it were not for a double standard, the Left would have no standards.
But the piece makes a better point a bit further down.
It’s long been recognized that the lockdown has had profound repercussions for the business sector; for instance, if people can’t go shopping, they will have to order products online, and that’s good news for Amazon. Indeed, that’s why Amazon’s stock price has nearly doubled in the last year, and why CEO Jeff Bezos’s net worth has soared to $184 billion.
In the meantime, at a lesser, but still lofty level, most white-collar employees have done well during the Covid-crisis; they do their work now online, from a home office.
In the meantime, what happens to everybody else? What happens to those who work with their hands? And to those who must still commute to a workplace—if they are allowed to work at all?
The class divide, the two country divide is strong here.
If you are in the privileged class the coronavirus is a nuisance. If not, it is crushing you. It is easy for someone who hasn’t missed a paycheck and who’s seen their stock portfolio jump to expect everyone to be able to wait a few more months ‘just to be safe.’
But for the people living paycheck to paycheck, a few more months may be their breaking point.
If we could have an honest cultural conversation in this country, someone would have noted this. Someone would have said something. But the New York-D.C.-San Francisco media complex is in the privileged class. They have not missed a paycheck, they have gotten more powerful during this virus. They don’t know (and likely don’t care) about small business owners in Cadott, Wisconsin. They certainly don’t care about poor families in southeast Ohio or Nebraska, or other Trump states.
The sad reality about this virus is that for some people it is little more than a bother, for others it is a catastrophe. Which one it is for you largely depends on which country you live in, which class you live in.
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