Last
week, on the day a previous proclamation expired, Edwards issued a new one.
He asserted that it meant the state had moved into the federal government’s
definition of “Phase 3” for reopening the economy. Those federal guidelines envision that
individuals unless considered vulnerable face no restrictions to their activity
although advised to minimize time in crowds while vulnerable ones could
interact with physical distancing and/or utilizing other measures such as face
coverings; employers could go to full worksite staffing; and, all businesses
could reopen although with some minor distancing in large venues and bars (which
under state law are places that serve more alcohol than food except in this
case for those with video poker machines), and visitation of nursing homes could
resume without additional restrictions.
By contrast, Edwards ordered continued masking in
public for everyone, applying major distancing requirements for larger venues
and bars that could stay open, even as almost all bars still would remain
closed for on-site consumption as they are located in parishes with a greater
than one-in-twenty positive rate over the past two weeks on virus tests. All
places offering dine-in food service could operate only limited hours. He also
disallowed nursing home visits for the time being, although saying limited ones
eventually would become allowed. Obviously, little has changed.
In reality, calling this implementation of a fig-leaf
Phase 2.1 a move to Phase 3 reflects not just symbolic over substantive change,
but also reflects a change driven not by science, but by politics. The appropriate
indicators were no better than they had been a month ago, but the resumption of
education from kindergarten to college, the looming football season, the elimination
of much extra federal unemployment benefits, and growing
public discontent placed additional pressure on Edwards to make it appear he had
relinquished a significant amount of control over people’s lives and
livelihoods.
Politically speaking, Edwards wants to continue to
project a crisis environment for three reasons. In temporal order, first he wants
to use it as justification
for activist federal courts to expand
insecure vote security methods for this fall elections, in the hopes of helping
candidates from his political party to win elections. Weaknesses in using the
mail for voting and voting in nursing homes make fraud too easily perpetrated.
Also, by continuing to hamstring the Louisiana economy
– which
under Edwards’ orders has suffered more than any other state’s, according
to a leading statistics aggregator – he builds a stronger case for another federal
bailout, which will permit him to keep Louisiana government bloated and avoid pressure
for right-sizing his agenda away. Finally, he appears to focus on an elected
career past his current gig, likely wishing election to the U.S. Senate in
2022, by trying to put a shine on his lackluster response to the pandemic to
date which inflated
the number of infections so quickly and so early that the state has had the
worst statistics of all that may go on longer than all.
That strategy is to maintain tight control to
suppress cases, hospitalizations, and deaths to close to zero as a way to compensate
for those much more alarming past statistics and to justify the economic pain from
having the worst state economy, regardless of the damages to livelihoods and
usurpation of liberty. This becomes apparent when looking the details and his
elaboration.
To start with, Edwards declared the latest set of
restrictions to last 28 days. That Oct. 9 expiration is no accident; high
schools, reversing
their own decision against his wishes, decided
they would play football beginning that week. However, more significantly
the four weeks duration displays little desire on his part to change things
before then
This is because he will shift expectations to keep
the crisis alive. Note how Edwards keeps moving the goalposts towards attaining
normal economic operation. Months ago, the measures were justified he said to
keep from overwhelming hospital capacity, which ceased as a problem by the
start of summer. A month ago, he said the problem keeping the face covering
mandate and bars closed was too
high of a positive test rate above 10 percent. Now, most bars remain closed
because the standard has changed to a 5 percent rate.
But, most ominously and telling, was his statement
about when the state should open completely. He said not to expect much
loosening of standards “until the pandemic is over.” Translation: until there’s
a vaccine, which
likely is months away, he’s not letting up.
All calculated for political gain for himself, his
party, and his tax-and-spend agenda, no matter how needless (as herd immunity completes
taking hold) and destructive
to people’s lives and livelihoods. It’s time to end this despotic madness. More
than one petition has started circulating among Republican legislators that
would have the effect of curtailing Edwards’ power in this instance. Using this
leverage, a majority needs to act to modify or neuter his policies.
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