For those unfamiliar with today’s title or the quote, Charles Bronson starred in the original Death Wish and four sequels spanning 24 years (1974-1998).  Not that we need a Paul Kersey to rid us of the modern RepubliQan party. (I wish I had come up with this new designation for the GOP, but saw it online over the weekend.)  It is so much easier when the offenders are willing to take themselves out of the gene pool, much less the electorate.  For evidence of these collective nominees for the Darwin Award 2021, look no farther than Nassau County, Florida where I live.  On Monday, July 12, the number of new COVID cases (214) exceeded the number of vaccine doses administered (212).

These numbers now appear representative of the state of Florida as a whole as well as virtually every state that voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election.  The 22 states with the highest vaccination rates among those 12+ years of age cast their electoral votes for Joe Biden ranging from Vermont with 85.9 percent of residents receiving at least one dose to Wisconsin with 66.1 percent.  In contrast the lowest vaccination states range from Florida with 65.9 percent to Mississippi with 47.5 percent.  All were in the 2020 “RED” column with the exception of the battleground states of Michigan and Arizona.  (Source: Mayo Clinic Vaccine Tracker)

Yet this is only the latest iteration of the Trump cultists’ death wish.  As the coronavirus spread across the country, they gladly attended spreader events masquerading as Trump campaign rallies, a biker conclave in Sturgis, South Dakota and celebrations on the south lawn of the White House.  According to multiple reports including a Stanford University Study, over 30,000 COVID cases and 700 plus related deaths were attributed to attendance at one or more Trump rallies during the 2020 campaign.

Just as the pandemic began to subside, the Trumpists found another path to thin their ranks.  This time it was a death wish in support of the “big lie.”  In December, the Arizona Republican Party retweeted a post by right-wing activist Ali Alexander in which Alexander said he was “willing to give up my life for this fight.”  The state GOP added but later deleted, “He is.  Are you?”  Seems the party’s social media coordinator never got the parental warning, “Just because your friend jumps off a bridge, doesn’t mean you have to follow him.”

And, of course, absent the restraint of the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police, many of the January 6th insurrectionists might have realized their death wish.  In what may be the first recorded case of lemmings leading more lemmings, the ringleaders of the insurrection were not satisfied with endangering themselves.  They encouraged others to join their ill-advised crusade.

Take the case of 18 year old Bruno Cua of Milton, Georgia.  Cua was arrested for having breached the Senate chamber.  When warned by another invader sitting in the vice-president’s chair might be “too much,” he asked, “They can steal an election, but we can’t sit in their chairs?”  As evidence of his state of mind before traveling to Washington on January 6th, prosecutors pointed to social media posts in which Cua says he was genuinely inspired by Trump and intent on use of violence to overturn the election.

In a February 25, 2021 defense motion, Cua’s lawyers made the following arguments.

(Our client) is an impressionable 18-year-old kid who was in the middle of finishing his online coursework to graduate from high school when he was arrested.

In many ways, he is less of an ‘adult’ than many teenagers.  He has never lived away from his parents. He has lived his entire life in the area immediately surrounding Atlanta.

In other words, ignorance is not only bliss, it is also a legal defense for January 6th insurrectionists.  [NOTE:  The legalese in the second paragraph can be translated as follows:  “less of an adult than many teenagers” = has the social skills of a 12 year old, “never lived away from his parents” = momma’s boy, and “lived his entire life in the area immediately surrounding Atlanta” = is a flat earth conspiracy theorist afraid of falling off the edge.]

It seems as though members of the RepubliQan Party now follow a mantra that can only be described as the antithesis of John 3:16.  “For Trump so loved himself, that his followers are willing to give their lives (and those of impressionable young people like Bruno Cua), that Trump should not vanish but have eternal political life.”

LATE BREAKING NEWS

Brett Kelman/Nashville Tennessean/July 13, 2021, 8:42 PM

The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach – not just for coronavirus, but all diseases – amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails obtained by the Tennessean. If the health department must issue any information about vaccines, staff are instructed to strip the agency logo off the documents.

The health department will also stop all COVID-19 vaccine events on school property, despite holding at least one such event this month.

They may not need another Paul Kersey, but Tennesseans would surely benefit from a reincarnation of John Thomas Scopes to point out Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey, who ordered the policy changes, is proof that some residents of the Volunteer State remain at the low end of the evolutionary scale.

EVEN LATER BREAKING NEWS

Ann E. Marimow/Washington Post/July 13, 2021, 8:53 PM

In a somewhat related story, a federal appeals court ruled “the existing minimum age requirement for purchases from federally licensed gun dealers restricts the rights of law-abiding citizens and draws an arbitrary, unjustified line.”  In the majority opinion, Judge Julius Richardson writes:

Despite the weighty interest in reducing crime and violence, we refuse to relegate either the Second Amendment or 18-to-20-year-olds to a second-class status.

In Tennessee, I guess high school students can “bear arms” to protect themselves from imagined threats, but not “bare arms” for vaccinations to protect themselves from a real threat that has already killed over 600,000 Americans.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP