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OF COURSE THERE ARE PARTISAN DIFFERENCES OVER CORONAVIRUS. The important thing to remember is those differences aren’t all about partisanship. They actually reflect the real-life experiences of people in Republican and Democratic areas of the country.
A new study by Pew Research shows some striking numbers. Of the 44 congressional districts hardest-hit by the virus — that is, those in the top ten percent of the nation in number of deaths — 41 are represented by Democrats and three are represented by Republicans. They’re from the obvious places: the New York metro area, Boston, Detroit, and New Orleans. Of the 44 congressional districts with the lowest numbers of deaths, 29 are represented by Republicans, and 15 by Democrats.
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Look at the graph below, created by Pew. The researchers are trying to make the point that deaths are falling in blue areas faster than in red areas. Perhaps they’re trying to raise an alarm about that. But look at the relative positions of the blue and red areas. The severity of the coronavirus epidemic was far, far worse in those blue regions than in the red regions, and still is. Perhaps the blue line will eventually dip below the red line, but the fact is that blue areas have had it much, much worse than red areas.
So what’s the point? There were many stories in the press, and much commentary, to the effect that the Republican areas of the south and west would be hit hard by the virus, just later than the New York area and other hot spots. Perhaps it would be worsened by red-staters defiantly ignoring commonsense measures like social distancing. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis often notes that his state was predicted to be the “next Italy.” But it didn’t happen, for some easy-to-grasp reasons — the easiest being that many blue areas have far more population density than many red areas.
But now that the country is gradually re-opening, of course people in some red areas are leading the way. It’s not because they’re reckless. It’s not because they believe coronavirus is a hoax. It’s not because they blindly follow Donald Trump. It’s because, in general, they have suffered less than people in New York, Boston, Detroit, and New Orleans. The virus was never as bad a problem where they lived as in some other places. They’re (hopefully) returning to normalcy from a different place than those hard-hit areas. The differences in approach aren’t about ideology. They are about the simple fact that conditions are different in different parts of the country.
