Those who have committed to Trump, and remain committed, will not yield now. Even his failures during a pandemic will not shake their resolve. On the contrary, they’ll say anything, and perhaps do anything, in support of their prior commitment. One should not be shocked by this — Hobbes was right, at least regarding the weak-minded, that reason is a spy for the passions (“the Thoughts, are to the Desires, as Scouts, and Spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the things Desired”).
One reads from Brian Stelter that Trumpism’s dead-enders are now falsely insisting that the coronavirus death count is overstated:
Some of the biggest names in right-wing media are questioning the official Covid-19 death toll. Indeed, they’re suggesting the numbers might be inflated in an effort to paint President Trump and/or the crisis in the worst possible light. In recent days, a version of this theory has been floated by personalties such as Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Tucker Carlson, Brit Hume, and “Diamond & Silk.”
….
Hume and Carlson are not alone. Levin tweeted Tuesday evening that he has “suspected this for weeks.” And Limbaugh, who initially dismissed the coronavirus as the “common cold,” said recently, “It’s admittedly speculation, but … what if we are recording a bunch of deaths to coronavirus which really should not be chalked up to coronavirus?”
(Emphasis in original.)
In fact, epidemiologists and other physicians believe that, if anything, the coronavirus’s spread and COVID-19 cases have been undercounted. See Coronavirus death toll: Americans are almost certainly dying of covid-19 but being left out of the official count.
These Trumpists, however, having put in for a penny, are now in for a pound.
Having gone so far as they have these last few years, there is nowhere they’ll not go now.