Missouri is the birthplace of some pretty famous thinkers, writers, and leaders like Mark Twain, Harry Truman, and Rush Limbaugh. It also happens to be where I come from. So I sit up and take notice when I see media attack my home state as some kind of careless, irresponsible, backwoods ground zero of COVID when the people of Missouri and most thinking people across the country have figured out the latest panic porn from the CDC is incongruous with what we know, see, and understand for ourselves.
It’s called the Show Me State for a reason. The nickname is attributed to Missouri Congressman Willard Vandiver, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903. Vandiver attended an 1899 naval banquet in Philadelphia where he declared, "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."
Of course, the Democrats of Vandiver’s era, and later Truman’s “buck stops here” era are long gone. Replaced with “I don’t have to show you, you’ll do what you’re told” and “blame the red state governors for our failure” Democrats of today. Now Missouri is as Republican-leaning as it gets and Democrats are out to try to change that by making the state appear to be super-spreader children in desperate need of Democrat parents.
The Daily Beast took exception with the great city of Branson, Missouri. “How A Tiny Town With an Anti-Mask Mayor Caused Covid Chaos” screamed the headline. “Branson, a super-spreader tourist town whose visitor policy—to sell lots of tickets and take few precautions—is endangering thousands of lives,” the author snarked.
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A few days later, Politico took aim at Osage Beach, Missouri and the Lake of the Ozarks with the headline: ‘What’s Covid?’ Why People at America’s Hardest-Partying Lake Are Not About to Get Vaccinated.” The finger-wagging screed kicked off with disgust. “At the Lake of the Ozarks, vaccines are shunned, masks are mocked and the long-term consequences take a back seat to the time at hand.”
Of course, anyone with a memory beyond yesterday remembers last year, at just about this time – before vaccines came online – the same media screeched in horror about the very same place. “The super-spreaders in the pool at the Lake of the Ozarks! The horrific viral video of maskless swimmers at 11!”
Remember?
But what you’ll also recall is nothing came of those hysterics. In fact, summertime sun and heat seemed to stop COVID in its tracks And while masks were still being worn indoors in many places, it became common knowledge the sun and heat were the virus’ worst enemy. COVID was becoming a manageable non-story but Democrats needed that all-important mail-in vote campaign to succeed, so they were never going to let COVID become something we could simply manage. It’s why they still won’t now.
Incidentally, how is it that this year - in the dead heat of July - the Delta variant is as rampant and surging and alarming and unstoppable as anything we’ve seen yet? Why are the Ozark partiers in more danger this year than last? Answer: They aren’t.
But what is different than last year is the guy pretending to lead. He’s supposedly in charge now and he needs a distraction. Something most Missourians and savvy Americans understand. This is politics ramping up at a time things aren’t going well for the pretend president. Chief among those disasters is the border.
Americans don’t like their summer vacations being blamed for spreading a virus when they know damned well hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants cross our southern border monthly. They’re not vaccinated and Democrats have no intention of insisting on it as they ship our uninvited guests to cities and towns all over the country to spread much more than just COVID, certainly.
But sure, Missourians are supposed to believe the biggest COVID threat to the country is caused by their trip to Silver Dollar City and a Yakoff Smirnoff show. They see how expensive gasoline is and how expensive groceries have become and a border overrun and guess what? They blame Biden. The one thing gramps and his team figure they have going for them is COVID management popularity and even those numbers are turning bleak.
Team Biden felt it was time to deploy a new strategy. So this week we’re told - vaccinated or not - we’re all right back to the same level of vulnerability to infection and likelihood of spreading the virus as we were before vaccines had arrived.
We’re told we must now behave as though the last year didn’t happen. Vaccine status matters not. It’s masks for all because we’re all at risk! It’s scary out there and so are those Missourians who caused it all, don’t you see?
The division, the isolation, the alienation, the mixed messaging – it’s on purpose to distract and scare. Pay no attention to the disasters swirling around you and put on a mask because what should really scare you are your fellow citizens who won’t behave.
You can feel the anger at these new edicts building. The sadness of last year is turning into an angry resolve to never allow it again. Americans’ tolerance and goodwill for masks and lockdowns are eroding. Americans’ trust in public health officials and cable news hosts is long gone.
Millions are becoming honorary Missourians. No longer content with flip-flopping “frothy eloquence” that “neither convinces nor satisfies,” voters aren’t interested in blindly following mindless edicts measuring unattainable and evolving metrics any longer.
So before they tell us to trust them with new mandates and rules that ruin millions of Americans’ livelihoods and personal lives again, they may actually have to provide some convincing evidence this time. They may actually have to show us.
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