Those of you have seen me talking about politics here know that I view Trump and Republicans...less than favorably. But, I’m willing to give credit where credit is due. Someone at the White House managed to get a bunch of experts together and publish a plan that is genuinely gradual and comprehensive. It has multiple phases, lots of milestones, and looks for all the world like the product of people who know things about stuff. It’s also named with a suitable Trumpism that ends with “again,” but who cares?
So, when you are confronted with crazed Trump supporters pushing to end social distancing...
Share this plan with them. Seriously. Ask them if their state has achieved the milestones laid out by President Trump to reopen.
Maybe this will have the perverse effect of reinforcing their belief that Trump is a good president who is competently handling the pandemic, which he most assuredly is not, but at least maybe they’ll listen to reason presented to them as the product of Trump himself.
Getting them to follow social distancing guidelines is more important, and it’s unlikely these true believers are flip-able anyway. But this plan gives as good a chance of anything to convince them to follow the public health experts’ recommendations.