Roy Exum: For Grins & Giggles

Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Roy Exum

Roy Exum

We know from many previous experiences that “An Idle Mind Is The Devil’s Workshop.” We also know that not one person in our nation could have been better prepared than our leaders from both parties in this COVID-19 pandemic. Guffaw and cackle all you want but I promise not a person in our state would pick you over Governor Bill Lee. It is terribly disappointing that every day somebody in every state blames somebody else for some next-to-nothing reason in an effort to pick a stupid and winless fight.

The liberal media could not be more brutal nor sinister to our President.

The desperate Dems have taken all semblance of sanity out of politics and every time the bumbling Republicans take the bait over what is no more than inane hogwash, it takes our country’s attention away from what is most important, ironically the good people of both parties.

Last week some Neanderthal was screaming on TV: “The blood is on the Republicans' hands!” What blood? The virus doesn’t pick and choose. Some people far smarter than me believe we must continue to “shelter in place” but my view is the economic and ever-building psychological damage in each and every neighborhood dictates we practice very logical distancing, masking, and hand-washing. I think “house arrest” is very wrong and while I am hardly the “protester type,” our leadership on both the left and the right has ignored the very present mental anguish wrought by COVID-19.

I love the guy who openly wonders that while we can stand shoulder-to-shoulder at Walmart, gather in hordes on “banned” ocean beaches, and crowd with laughter at tightly-packed bars but … what? … go to church? No sir! That’s where the libel elites draw the line. No worship. No Jesus! Buy all the beer you want and, yes, the whiskey stores are doing record business as they rush to open, but there will be no singing of hymns like “Love Lifted Me.” Churches are too dangerous. Please! Admit it, the prejudice against God is ridiculous!

So, as liberal and conservatives joust over blame, I spent Sunday afternoon in an exercise that proves nothing but seems to tell a lot. I took three groups of states to compare. The first group in my very unprofessional virus analysis are those seven states that did not mandate a “stay home” order. Arkansas, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming decided that was stupid, given the wide-open plains and distant contacts with others. How did that turn out? Just wait until you see the figures. And is it just incidental that all seven have Republican governors?

The second group are the eight states who were the first to break the “stay home” agony. These are those who did away with “stay in place” orders on or before April 30. As we enter the last week of May, what are their cases-vs-deaths numbers? And does it matter there are six Republicans and two Democrat governors that lead them? I can no longer roller-skate but even I can detect a pattern.

The third group is the most puzzling; of the 16 states that are still “closed,” why it is that 14 are governed by Democrats and just two by Republicans? (In the first two groups we have 13 Republicans and only two Democrats. Suddenly the political racket is 16 Dem to 15 Repubs. Why such a marked divide?) In these 16 holdout states are over 40 percent of our population and could it be to keep over 135 million people cooped up is some political ploy? I don’t get it … keep me in “house arrest” and I’m going to be mad about it. That’s why you see protests, lawsuits, men with guns on the Michigan governor’s steps and more arrests for “civil disobedience” with each new day. Puzzling, no? Yet to what gain?

Finally, of the 31 states that were included in my seat-of-the-pants comparison, there happen to be 16 Democrat states and 15 Republic states. Which group do you think has the larger cases-to-deaths ratio? Why the disparity? And, yes, you’ll see some things that will make you scratch and wonder. All of these figures were taken off the Microsoft search engine Bing, which I think has the easiest coronavirus dashboard:

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GROUP A -- 7 STATES WITH NO STAY-HOME ORDERS

(Seven Republican Governors, No Democratic Governors)

ARKANSAS: Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) -- Pop. 3.1M: 5,775 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 115 (1.9 percent)

IOWA: Governor Kim Reynolds (R) – Pop. 3.1M: 17,213 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 499 (2.8 percent)

NORTH DAKOTA: Governor Doug Burgum (R) – Pop. 762K: Coronavirus 2,418; Deaths 53 (2.1 percent)

OKLAHOMA: Governor Kevin Stitt (R) -- Pop. 3.9M: 5,960 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 311 (5.2 percent)

SOUTH DAKOTA: Governor Kristi Noem (R) -- Pop. 884K: 4,468 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 50 (1.1 percent)

UTAH: Governor Gary Herbert (R) -- Pop. 3.2M: 8,057 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 93 (1.1 percent)

WYOMING: Governor Mark Gordon (R) – Pop. 578K: 813 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 12 (1.4 percent)

(Note: Statistics are as of May 24, 2020 via Bing -- Microsoft)

‘GROUP A’ POPULATION TOTAL: 15.7M (4.77 percent OF USA Population = 330M)

‘GROUP A’ CORONAVIRUS CASES TOTAL: 44,704; Deaths: 1,133 (avg. 2.5 percent)

* * *

GROUP B – THE 8 STATES THAT OPENED ON OR BEFORE APRIL 30

(Six Republican Governors and Two Democrat Governors)

COLORADO: Governor Jared Polis (D) – Pop. 5.7M: (Coronavirus cases: 23,964; Deaths: 1,327. (5.5 percent)

GEORGIA: Governor Brian Kemp (R) – Pop. 10.6M: Coronavirus cases: 42,846; Deaths: 1,825 (4.2 percent)

IDAHO: Governor Brad Little (R) – Pop. 1.7M: Coronavirus cases: 2,626; Deaths: 79 (3.0 percent)

MISSISSIPPI: Governor Tate Reeves (R) – Pop. 2.9M: Coronavirus cases; 13,252; Deaths 625 (4.7 percent)

MONTANA: Governor Steve Bullock (D) – Pop. 1.0M: Coronavirus cases 479; Deaths 16 (3.3 percent)

TEXAS: Governor Greg Abbott (R) – Pop. 29.0M: Coronavirus cases 54,509; Deaths 1,506 (2.7 percent)

NEBRASKA: Governor Pete Ricketts (R) – Pop. 1.9M: Coronavirus cases 11,989; Deaths 147 (1.2 percent)

TENNESSEE: Governor Bill Lee (R) – Pop. 6.8M: Coronavirus cases 19,789; Deaths 329 (1.7 percent)

(Note: Statistics are as of May 24, 2020 via Bing -- Microsoft)

‘GROUP B’ POPULATION TOTAL: 59.6 million (18 percent of USA Population = 330M)

‘GROUP B’ CORONA CASES TOTAL: 169,454; Deaths 5,854 (Avg. 3.2 percent)

* * *

16 STATES THAT ARE STILL CLOSED

(14 Democratic Governors, Two Republican Governors)

KENTUCKY: Governor Andy Beshear (D) – Pop. 4.5M: Coronavirus cases 8,571; Deaths 391 (4.6 percent)

CALIFORNIA: Governor Gavin Newsom (D) – Pop. 39.5M: Coronavirus cases 92,710; Deaths 3,774 (4.0 percent)

MAINE: Governor Janet Millis (D) – Pop. 1.3M: Coronavirus cases 2,013; Deaths 77 (3.8 percent)

HAWAII: Governor David Ige (D) – Pop. 1.4M: Coronavirus cases 647; Deaths 17 (2.6 percent)

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Governor Chris Sunuhu (R) – Pop. 1.3M: 4,089 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 208 (5.0 percent)

MICHIGAN: Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) – Pop. 10.M: coronavirus cases 54,365; Deaths 5,223 (9.6 percent)

NEW MEXICO: Governor Michele Lujan Grisham (D) – Pop. 2.0M: coronavirus cases 6,795; Deaths 308 (4.5 percent)

NEW YORK: Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) – Pop. 19.4M: coronavirus cases 361,515; Deaths 23,282 (6.4 percent)

OREGON: Governor Kate Brown (D) – Pop. 4.2M: 3,888 coronavirus cases; Deaths 147 (3.7 percent)

OHIO: Governor Mike DeWine (R) – Pop. 11.6M: 31,408 Coronavirus cases; 1,956 Deaths (6.2 percent)

PENNSYLVANIA: Governor Tom Wolfe (D) – Pop. 12.8M: 67,713 coronavirus cases; Deaths 5,124 (7.5 percent)

VIRGINIA: Governor Ralph Northam (D) – Pop. 8.5M: 35,749 coronavirus cases; Deaths 1,159 (3.2 percent)

WASHINGTON: Governor Jay Inslee (D) – Pop. 7.6M: 19,585 coronavirus cases; Deaths 1,055 (5.3 percent)

DELAWARE: Governor John Carney (D) – Pop. 973K: 8,809 coronavirus cases; Deaths 326 (3.7 percent)

ILLINOIS: Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) – Pop. 12.6M: 107,796 coronavirus cases; Deaths 4,790 (4.4 percent)

NEW JERSEY: Governor Phil Murphy (D) – Pop. 8.8M: 154,154 coronavirus cases; Deaths 11,133 (7.2 percent)

(Note: Statistics are as of May 24, 2020 via Bing -- Microsoft)

‘GROUP C’ POPULATION TOTAL: 140.2 Million (42.4 percent of USA = Pop. 330M)

‘GROUP C’ CORONAVIRUS CASES TOTAL: 554,998 cases; Deaths 58,149 (avg. 10.4 percent)

* * *

THE DEMOCRAT VS. REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS IN ROY’S ANALYSIS

[Note in the categories of states that Roy Exum compared, there were 31 states out of the nations’ 50 that were represented. When we took the Democratic and Republicans out of the three groups and compared them to one another by using simple math, here is what we found:

DEMOCRAT GOVERNORS (16)

COLORADO: Governor Jared Polis (D) – Pop. 5.7M: (Coronavirus cases: 23,964; Deaths: 1,327. (5.5 percent)

MONTANA: Governor Steve Bullock (D) – Pop. 1.0M: Coronavirus cases 479; Deaths 16 (3.3 percent)

KENTUCKY: Governor Andy Beshear (D) – Pop. 4.5M: Coronavirus cases 8,571; Deaths 391 (4.6 percent)

CALIFORNIA: Governor Gavin Newsom (D) – Pop. 39.5: M: Coronavirus cases 92,710; Deaths 3,774 (4.0 percent)