As through this life you travel, you meet some funny men. Some rob you with a six gun and some with a fountain pen. As through this life you ramble, as through this life you’ll roam, you’ll never see an outlaw take a family from their home.
Woody Guthrie
Somewhere beyond the work-from-home population are growing numbers of forgotten Americans – including many Clinton voters – whose life’s work is dying. Right now, your everyday people are going broke through no fault of their own. These are the business owners that cut your hair, pour your drink, and teach your yoga class – for example – and they want America to re-open sooner rather than later. They deserve to be heard.
Full disclosure: everyone in my family is being paid to work from home, and personal health is concern #1. Therefore, I can think today about Joe and Molly Curran, owners of a small restaurant in North Carolina. They are smart business people and Facebook friends. Most of their post-coronavirus posts invite daily take-out orders, but Molly linked a Forbes article on Friday, urging Washington to help mom-and-pop businesses.
The Currans (who are NOT storming the Capitol) exemplify millions of hard-working entrepreneurs, who can walk and chew gum at the same time. The Currans have raised three healthy boys AND run a flourishing business; therefore, I trust them to be health conscious and operate a restaurant, benefiting customers and employees. Isn’t don’t treat us like deplorable idiots the primary argument of the open-up protesters?
Not according to mad-liberal pundit Joy Behar (The View): “I’d like to ask them if they’re willing to sign away their right to treatment if and when they get infected [and] need a ventilator, because [they defied] the governor’s order?” Behar was, of course, collecting a paycheck to broadcast that snooty opinion from home, in spite of the protests being peaceable assemblies – a real “let them eat cake” elitist moment.
These are times for statesmen – not politicians – because governors should protect lives and life’s work. This isn’t a binary choice (containment or commerce) because the President provided political cover when he called it his toughest decision. The data proves New Mexico is not at risk like New York and Tensas county (LA) is not at risk like New Orleans. Even Sweden, every liberal’s Valhalla, decided against shuttering businesses.
I guessed from the way she talks down to small-business owners that Governor Whitmer (D-MI) never worked in business (let alone run one). Her inexperience prevents her from knowing how small business owners evaluate and mitigate risk, or that they are Michigan’s secret recovery weapon. Why wouldn’t a politician – with no business experience – trust the skill and will of those who’ve successfully run a small business? No reason in my mind.
The coronavirus has triggered a philosophical divide in America: pitting the “advantaged” with 401Ks working comfortably from home against small-business owners and employees that are out of work and going broke. By far, this latter group is the largest at-risk group in America, and a big question is forming on their lips for every governor, representative, and senator come November: what did YOU do in the Great War? I’m taking the under on many blame-game politicians winning re-election.
Let’s close with a shameless plug for 1703, the Curran’s restaurant/catering business in Winston-Salem, NC. Not only do they exemplify American entrepreneurial spirit, they are purveyors of great cuisine and hospitality. I highly recommend their kitchen. You can thank me later (but don’t assume they read this blog).