State of Fear

Today Rhode Island implemented a policy to hunt down New Yorkers and isolate them. “Self-quarantine” remains the prevailing euphemism.

No mincing. This is 100% the president’s fault. If we had a cohesive, sensible, national response, we would have avoided this predictable, inter-state chaos. This is not a guess, this is obvious.

Also clear, we’re turning on each other. The dynamics are straight-forward. It started with the president dehumanizing and concentrating immigrants in border camps, condoning white supremacists, and most recently continued with his naming the virus “Chinese,” resulting in more stochastic violence.

Now, while virus-hot states are busy with survival, neighboring virus-cool states will be patrolling their borders, and implementing features of martial law targeting first hot-zones, and then in order to make oversight easier, any citizen not from their own state, or a state with whom they don’t have a mutual protection agreement. You know, like the mutual protection agreement we used to call the United States.

This isn’t just a path of “every state must get their own ventilators,” this is another step down a staircase to disunion. Predictably, state government isolationistic policies will create more mistrust of outsiders, fan fear and result in citizen-on-citizen violence. Others will exploit such opportunities for profit, and eventually out of desperation, for survival.

The president didn’t create the virus, however, by mismanagement and malfeasance he has created this crisis. Contrary to his denials, he is responsible for this outcome. If you take the credit — and boy does he take the credit — then you take the blame.

Without a National support system and coordination, the states, like Rhode Island today, will be forced to make decisions, take initiative and fight with the tools they have on hand, not the vaporous promises of the careless president and his villainous administration.

Worse-still, when hot-zones get cooler — which they eventually will! — how do you think they’re going to react to new hot-zones in neighboring states? You guessed it.

Like someone who quits cigarettes can feel about smokers, they’ll react with exceptional strength. They’ll be draconian, ruthless in maintaining their borders, especially versus states that didn’t take the warnings seriously for what will probably, eventually seem like trivial, political reasons. And all those citizens who survived the worst by luck and cleverness, they will be less than eager to be reinfected by people from neighboring states.

Rhode Island is reacting because it must. But of course there’s no strategic plan. It’s every state for itself behavior. See it for what it is, for what the president is encouraging. This right here in Rhode Island, is the road to island states, bound by shifting allegiances and bounded by xenophobia. The president is presiding over the marginalization, deinstitutionalization and dissolution of the federal government.

Some will cheer for this. I doubt this will bring the revolution for which they yearn. For this is the disaster we have earned.

Rhode Island hasn’t yet closed its borders. But it would, if it could. Where there’s a will.

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