Yin and Yang. And 800,000 Dead

 ("The Viral Lies That Keep Killing Us")

Like most everything else in the Republican universe, their relationship with the truth on the issue of Covid emanates from the head of the snake, Donald Trump.

Mr. Trump made the immediate calculation in the beginning of 2020 that it was politically expedient to minimize the effect of the virus. It will be gone one day, like a miracle. Keeping public concern at bay was good for his political health, if not the health of the nation. There was no turning back, no matter the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

And once the election was lost, Operation Warp Speed and the development of the vaccine could not be handed as a present to Mr. Biden. Thus the cure became not the savior but the enemy. In the Republican universe, good for the Dems is bad for business. The business of their staying in office.

And so we are faced with two parties pulling our country in opposite directions. Hard truths versus easy fictions. Protecting life versus protecting power. Exposing Trump versus exalting him. 

Yin and yang. And 800,000 dead.