THIS^^^^^

Here is what I believe happened:

1. From initial reports both the severe case rate and the death rate appeared higher than they actually turned out to be, and Fauci et al had already done a lot of planning for severe pandemics, coming up with new tools to fight a truly deadly pathogen. The ideas of social distancing had been conceptualized. And so this appeared to be the time to try them out.

2. Trump took their advice and might have believed the Dems would actually come together to address this crisis in a rational way, and a short shutdown to flatten the curve so as not to overwhelm hospitals seemed a good thing. Evidence: everything Trump’s team did to build extra facilities, bring ships in, and so on, to provide beds, ventilators, etc.

3. After 2 or 3 weeks of shutdown, and the stock market crash, it began to occur to the Democrats, including Fauci and all the Dem governors, that the shutdown could actually cause economic damage. It was no leap for them to see that this could hurt Trump’s chances at reelection.

4. Hence began the extensions and the moving of goal posts, despite all the new data coming in that this doesn’t look much more deadly than the flu, and that social distancing is only really needed in about 5% of the counties in the whole U.S., and that in fact, we are compromising our herd immunity by staying shut down which actually increases the risk for a second wave. But the appeal of destroying Trump wins.

5. The devastating effect of the stimulus packages on the Federal budget, providing a reason to “blame” Trump, and the bonus of prepping people for accepting universal income, universal healthcare, less pollution and a more austere lifestyle, gives the left incentive to promote socialist utopia goals, and to prolong the lockdown to maximize the pain, and the chance they can use it against Trump in November.

This has become a triggering event, bringing to life the simmering ideological divide we’ve been under for decades. It’s no longer about the virus and hasn’t been since the first two weeks of the shutdown.

Yet the conservatives that are eligible to vote will bitch and complain, yet can't be bothered with voting.

 I'm hoping this is a wake up call for Michigan and other states who are seeing what it's like when they allow a select few to install these tinpot dictators into office.

Exactly.  My BIL is a German, and his father served on the Eastern Front.   If you were asked if you supported the Nazi Party, the answer had to be yes, it was not optional.

The implications of this are terrifying. That we shut down the entire nation when the majority of cases were in only a handful of cities and when such a reaction would never have occurred to us ever in the whole history of mankind should tell us that something has gone very wrong in our society. Too much information spread too fast before it was completely understood led to mass fear and hysteria, the birth of the internet and mass online shopping enabled the shutdown, and a powerful government bureaucracy to “study” diseases with nothing to do but think up social engineering experiments to “control” a pandemic without even considering whether we should. Humans and pathogens coexist and always have; the great majority of germs are actually good for us, and when we confront the bad ones, we evolve defenses against them.

We have exchanged naturally dealing with a disease for authoritarian control over our every move without even any proof that it’s if any benefit and clear overwhelming evidence of destructive consequences, and yet there is every indication that this could become the norm. It’s unsustainable. How much damage before we wake up and realize what a colossal mistake this was?

Worst of all that went wrong in our society that this could happen is complacency: a couple of generations so far removed from real hardship and so mal-educated that they can’t grasp the concept of losing constitutional liberties, and so mislead by a biased media that they eagerly follow the pied Piper all the way into Hell, and won’t realize what they’ve done until the food stops arriving at their doorstep.

Time to abolish the FBI and fire everyone.

The Smartcarry was the Thunderwear to which I refer. Unless they are two different brands.

I have found two different types of cops. Those who don’t believe citizens should carry, and those who do and actually like you if you have a carry permit because it means you’ve been background checked and are very unlikely to be a threat. It’s possible PA has more of the former and NC more of the latter.