Shelter in Place
“Shelter in place” was a scary enough term when it we were dealing with mass shooters. As a teacher, it meant huddle in the corner of a classroom, hope that the door didn’t open, and wait for help. The concept sucked, as did the alternative “Alice” training. Throwing Campbell’s soup cans at someone with an AR-15 (yep, I even know that means Armalite, not Automatic Rifle) just doesn’t seem like a fair fight.
But now it has a whole new meaning. In other eras it was called house arrest or curfews, but now it means, “please, stay at home, so we don’t have to make the police force you to do it”. It’s a kinder, gentler way of keeping folks in their houses. And, of course, it’s the right thing to do in this corona-virus world – something I expect we will be doing here in Ohio soon.
An After Thought
By the way, Joe Biden won three elections last night. He gained a 289 delegate lead in the race to the nomination over Bernie Sanders, 1153 to 861. Biden won Florida 62% to 23%, Illinois 59% to 36%, and Arizona 44% to 32%. If Ohio had voted he would have won there as well.
But with social distancing, sheltering in place, and cleanliness guidelines, how will the remaining half of the states manage to hold primary elections? Big states are still in play: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio (re-run) and Wisconsin among them. And if they can’t find a way to vote, what does that say for the November election. The “wave theory” of corona-virus says there will be this first onslaught, then a pause. Scientists then predict a second “wave” will hit sometime in the fall, when the social distancing rules may need to be applied again.
A friend strenuously objected to Ohio’s postponing the election yesterday, saying that we must protect the right to vote at all costs, even in this health crisis. He had a point: if there’s a health crisis in November will there be some attempt to postpone the Presidential election? It would be hard for me to “shelter in place” if that happened.
Of course there are alternatives. Oregon and Washington vote by mail: no physical contact or polling places needed. Even those who forget to send their ballots can drop them off at “collection” stations. That minimizes the risks to both the voters and the collectors. While many states have struggled to make voting easier, for political or other reasons, perhaps our current health crisis will “trump” those concerns. We will see.
Bye Bye Bernie?
In the meantime, Democrats are treading lightly when it comes to the Bernie Sanders campaign. The writing is “on the wall” so to speak for the Senator from Vermont. Statistically speaking there doesn’t seem to be a reasonable chance he could win the nomination for the Presidency. As crazy as it seems, it’s less than a month from Bernie’s big win in Nevada and New Hampshire and the virtual write-off of the Biden candidacy, the world is now “upside down”. Democrats nationwide have spoken, and Biden will be the nominee.
Joe Biden did his best to sound Presidential, magnanimous, and accommodating to the Bernie Sanders’ supporters in his victory talk last night (it really was a streamed talk, not a typical campaign victory speech). Biden, like Hillary Clinton in 2016, knows that he needs all the help he can get to defeat Donald Trump. Sanders’ supporters represent votes, and even more importantly, energy in the fall campaign. So “kid gloves” is the word for talking about Sanders and his followers.
And there isn’t, so far, the bitterness that pervaded the end of the Clinton/Sanders battles of 2016. The DNC has gone above and beyond to be fair, and like it or not, the voters have made the choice very clear. So the time is coming to wrap up this primary season.
The election is currently running way back in second place in this corona-virus news world. It would be a good time for Senator Sanders to do what’s right for the Party, and the Nation, and let us concentrate on getting through this crisis, and onto ending the four-year disaster of Donald Trump.
