i don't want to overstate regional differences on this subject, but it's hard to ignore how covid in this country is a disease of racialized poverty, and the states with big outbreaks that are refusing to shut down have historically embraced racial caste systems.

this isn't to downplay racism in the north, but the quality of racism in the south—where you have large communities of color that whites have traditionally simply not considered to be part of the same polity—is evident in those states' decisionmaking

in other words, these states refusing to shut down is not just about Trumpism, but also a much more deeply rooted sense that they are not obligated to address any social problem that does not predominantly affect white people