Hey, Abbott

​Yesterday, I was talking with a friend about Gov. Greg Abbott testing positive for COVID-19.  At one point, he said, “Okay, you want to know what I think the best outcome would be with this for the country?  I know you’re not going to like this, but…”

And yes, he was right because we’d talked about such things before, and I knew what he was going to say, so I cut him off.  No, you’re right, I said, I don’t like it, and I don’t agree with it.  I don’t hope anyone dies of COVID-19.  Though if someone is going to die, there certainly are some people I’d prefer it to be over others.  But, no, I don’t want Greg Abbott to die – and I explained why.  I said that he’s been fully-vaccinated, and if he died despite that, it would send a horrible message to people who are unvaccinated and terrify them even more.

To my surprise, my friend showed a rare sensibility and said, “Yeah, you’re right.”

(By the way, when I later told my friend that I'd written this, he said, "I was sensible for political reasons.  But I still want him to die.")

That aside, the story about Abbott is galling, and it infuriates me all the more, since Greg Abbott is an awful guy who’s likely helped cause the deaths of many in Texas.  But he’s awful beyond that – in fact, just yesterday, I wrote about him gleefully signing a bill that take effect on September 1 where most adults in Texas 21+ will be able to buy a gun without a license or training.  And this is on top of him helping promote voter suppression laws, suing to arrest the Democratic representatives who left the state, and putting anti-mask mandates in place (which many school boards in Texas have been ignoring.  Thank goodness.)

So, yes, he’s an awful person – and the Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is even worse.  And may even be worse, with more authority the way the state’s constitution is written.  But that Greg Abbott has been at the forefront of making sure that safety measures against COVID-19 don’t exist in Texas makes it all worse.  Not just over no vaccinations and anti-masks and no social distances, but the Texas Rangers baseball team was the first club to open its stadium fully, with fans packed in to 48,411capacity.

But it’s not just that Gregg Abbott was double-vaccinated, which likely saved his life given that he probably has a more-limited respiratory system from his spinal cord injury.  But he was treated with Regeneron and had higher levels of medical care not available to most people.

To be clear, if all the treatment he received helps save his life, good for that.  But if so – and even if it’s unnecessary and he’d have been fine regardless – it would almost be a requirement that Abbott begin to be the head cheerleader in Texas for getting vaccines, wearing masks and taking all possible care to avoid getting infected with the coronavirus.  But I’m not holding my breath on that, because it’s not who Greg Abbott has ever shown himself to be.

But it’s almost a requirement not because of it all being used to save his life…but because he likely infected many hundreds of others either directly or indirectly.  Not just from his regularly daily contact with scores of people, but only the day before he was at a big indoor event, packed with 600 unmasked Republicans.  Those are people he came in direct contact with, but also people they came in contact with…who came in contact with others.  And others.  And others.  How many of them will get infected?  And how many of those aren’t vaccinated – this is Texas, after all – and might die?

So, yes, my hope is that the takeaway for Greg Abbott is that he begins promoting vaccinations, which likely saved his life, and masks which will save others.  And I will be shocked if that’s what happens.  Which will be gut-wrenching sickening.  Though not as sickening if, in addition to not learning a lesson, he keeps exacerbating the deadly infectious problem and pushes anti-mask mandate even more.

But this is Texas.  And this is Greg Abbott.  Governor of the state with one of the two highest infection rates in the country – along with Ron DeSantis and Florida.  So, don’t mess with Texas and Greg Abbott, let them mess with everyone else.

It’s just sickeningly incomprehensible to me how Republican leaders, even by GOP standards, could continue being so inhumanly irresponsible during a worldwide pandemic that has lasted a year-and-a-half now…and is spiking.  And mutating.

I hold out a tiny speck of hope that Greg Abbott will do something humane, much as I don’t expect it.  The problem is that the Republican Party has so deeply ingrained its base to ignore it all that they…well, will likely ignore it all.