"Old People Are All Hidden Away, Fearing For Their Lives"...

[babylonsister]

I am one.


“Old People Are All Hidden Away, Fearing For Their Lives”: Trump’s Coronavirus Mismanagement Is Alienating Seniors in a Crucial State
In Florida, Biden is up and Trump is slipping as older voters fault him for his messy pandemic response: “He changes his mind every three days.” The consequences for 2020 could be enormous.
By Ken Stern
May 7, 2020


Golf cart parades are a key part of the political pageantry of the Villages, a 130,000-resident retirement colossus in Sumter County, Florida, often perkily described as America’s fastest-growing hometown. It’s a charming tradition, as the golf carts, festooned with signs and patriotic bunting, proceed grandly down the quiet avenues of the community. But this year many of the established ways of turning out the vote—the golf cart parades, door knocking, massive Trump rallies—may be nixed due to social distancing restrictions, injecting a new note of uncertainty into a state that has raised political uncertainty to a rare art form.

Before coronavirus hit, Donald Trump was a modest favorite in Florida, a state considered critical to his political survival. Trump won Florida in 2016, albeit by the thin margins characteristic of the state, and Florida Republicans have long held significant advantages in organization and fundraising. But the president’s erratic handling of the pandemic and the relative popularity of Joe Biden have changed the political calculus. Recent polls have given the Democratic challenger a small but consistent lead—movement driven largely by shifting views among voters over the age of 65. Senior voters are always crucial, as they vote at higher rates than any other age group. But they’re particularly important in Florida, where they make up almost 21% of the population, a higher percentage than every other state except Maine. In the latest Quinnipiac poll for Florida, Biden held a 10-point lead among respondents over 65. It’s an astonishing figure, given that in 2016, Trump carried the state’s seniors by 17 points. Other recent polls haven’t quite matched the Quinnipiac numbers, but they have shown substantial movement among seniors toward Biden. Given that Trump won Florida by just nearly 113,000 votes, but carried seniors handily by some 330,000, even small shifts in senior voting could turn Florida blue in 2020.

The roots of senior discontent aren’t hard to find. Nora Patterson, a longtime Republican county commissioner and former mayor of Sarasota, told me that the “old people are all hidden away, fearing for their lives.” Florida has so far been spared the ravages of coronavirus compared to New York or New Jersey, two states that tend to feed Florida’s population, but concern remains high: According to the same Quinnipiac poll, 77% of seniors fear hospitalization for themselves or their family members. And seniors aren’t giving Trump high marks for his erratic handling of coronavirus. As Patterson put it to me, “I don’t know what to think about Trump because he changes his mind every three days.” In regard to the handling of the COVID-19 crisis, Trump’s polling numbers among seniors in Florida are not terrible in the abstract (50% disapprove, 47% approve), but they run 13 points behind those of Governor Ron DeSantis and far behind other governors. When asked who should decide when to lift stay-at-home orders, 86% of seniors picked state governors over the president. Most important, seniors now favor Biden over Trump by nine points when it comes to handling a crisis, largely because Biden’s reputation for steady leadership and truth-telling is significantly stronger than Trump’s.

more...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/trumps-coronavirus-mismanagement-is-alienating-florida-seniors

[Frustratedlady]

1. I'm on my 13th week of hiding away. As long as I'm above ground, I can wait it out.

I sure don't want to die knowing he is still in office. I owe that to my grandkids.

[agingdem]

4. I'm almost 72 and I'm not afraid of dying

but I want to live long enough to see trump decimated on Election Day, McConnell destroyed in his home state, Collins voted out (with concern) in Maine, and the Senate flip...I will say this...I would sacrifice my life for my children and my grandchildren but I will not die for Trump's fuck ups...

[ashredux]

10. Ahhh...maybe not afraid, but the virus will kill ya

[rzemanfl]

21. Add a year and pissing on Drumpf's grave and I'm you.

[riversedge]

2. Problem--will they remember their fear in Nov??

[jimlup]

3. Enough will ...

but we can't assume anything. You are absolutely right about that!

[rurallib]

12. I wouldn't bet this mess will be anywhere near over by November

[flibbitygiblets]

22. By November, Florida will have suffered severely due to Republican foolishness

Those who survive will vote to end the madness.

Please, protect yourselves however you must until we have sane leadership again.

[sfstaxprep]

18. He'll NEVER Lose His 35-40% Base

It's the remaining 6-7% he'll need that might be a problem.

[malaise]

5. We still go for our morning walk - three days a week now and not four as usual

The Security guard at the entrance has a remote thermometer and checks everyone in every car before you can enter.

I refuse to lock away and die from lack of exercise. We are careful and since the same people have been walking there for years we look out for one another.

[tblue37]

28. Unfortunately, not all covid sufferers present with fever. nt

[Hekate]

6. KnR

[ffr]

7. Republicans to the greatest generation: thank you for your hard work. Good-bye!

[Wounded Bear]

8. Pretty sure the Repub advantage is a little more than organizing and fundraising...

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. Yup. We never even got the full story about why Chad got hung.

[Jim__]

9. "He changes his mind every three days." - More like every 3 minutes. - n/t

[crickets]

14. He's a flip-flopper. That terms needs to come back in style. It fits! nt

[not fooled]

16. OK that's something

at least her perception is accurate in being negative, but WTF she doesn't comprehend how he has screwed up the "response" from the get-go, starting with firing the Pandemic Response Team? His malfeasance goes far and wide and the more you understand the worse he looks.

And, The Villages sounds like a haven for "vote republican because taxes" types so I hope those formerly stalwart GOPee fans are cognizant of what their cost-cutting, me-me-me mentality has gotten them.

[brush]

11. Old people are sheltering-in-place because you don't get old...

being a fool–except for lucky, rich dummies like trump who even swindled his own siblings out of their equal share of his old fortune.

Nobody with any sense is going out there anymore than necessary with this once-in-a-century pandemic ravaging the nation.

[babylonsister]

17. This little princess, who is the daughter of a friend

and married to a trump humper works at HEB grocery in TX. She told me this whole thing is a joke and no one around her is sick. I asked her to explain the 70K+ deaths and she brushed me off. She is in her 60s and not exactly a rocket scientist, or religious for that matter.

Lord jesus will take care of my family
You know we worked our ass off for everything we have and all I see is people getting free stuff cause of Obama and we pay for that shit from my sweat and tears they don't care and he's changing that and yall don't like it so o well
You have your opinion and I have mine but I can't stand to see that's all you and my cousin post so I will just unfollow you both so I don't have to see it still have you as a friend though love ya

[Haggis for Breakfast]

15. OMG ! If The Villages turn against him,

He's toast. This is no small issue. The Villages are nothing short of a phenomenon amongst the older crowd.

[rzemanfl]

23. I prefer to think of them as an aberrant phenomenon among the borderline

senile.

[Hassler]

19. Every three days? More like every five minutes.

[RainCaster]

20. I am one who is in hiding

I am trying really damn hard to find a job, but that just ain't gonna happen in this job market.

How am i supposed to do this while I am hidden away? At 60+ with high blood pressure and other issues, I might not survive a bout of the DFT virus. My daughter is living with us, and her lupus puts her in the high risk category as well.

Thanks tRump. Fuck you for not giving a shit about anyone but you.

[Ms. Toad]

24. I haven't been able to see my parents since the first week of March.

The campus was closed to incoming visitors then. My parents could still go out - but we couldn' come in.

About a week later, they locked my parents in. Technically they could leave - but if they left, they could not return.

Internally, they segregated the population into 3 distinct populations. The campus is organized around the premise of residents helping residents. So many of the mobile residents were paired with less mobile. They are no longer to work together - and many of the less mobile are also in the early stages of dementia or other mental impairment and depended on this daily contact to keep them in touch with reality.

So far (fingers crossed) there are no cases on the campus. But my parents are realistic - it is only a matter of time.

We actually have three generations at risk in our family - my spouse and I are both over 60 (and both have diabetes) and our daughter has an autoimmune disease.

I wouldn't describe any of us as fearing for our lives, but half of us have a healthy dose of respect for the virus. (My parents and I). My daughter does, as well - but she is an essential worker so has been working this entire time. My spouse, on the other hand, has no reason to go out - but finds an excuse nearly every day.

At least my parents are relatively safe.

[babylonsister]

26. Your folks are in assisted living?

That does sound pretty safe, but tough not to see them.

My bf does the going out for the most part. Work occasionally, shopping when necessary, home.

I went to Sam's briefly yesterday, my big day out, but have a very healthy respect for this disease. I don't want to go out when I don't have to.

[Ms. Toad]

27. They are in an extended care community.

Currently they are in their own cottage (independent living + 1 community meal a day - until COVID 19). Once they are no longer able to live independently, they will move up the care ladder.

Each step up the care ladder is a distinct community during COVID 19 (which is part of what makes it so hard for the residents). The community was designed with the expectation of lots of daily contact across the various levels of care, "enforced" by the strong encouragement to each resident to volunteer. It is a major part of what attracted my parents to it. Both of my parents accompany other residents to medical visits to be an extra set of ears and eyes. My mother is paired with at least one person in the skilled nursing wing, my father is heavily involved in the gardening group). They both keep an informal eye on a friend in the memory unit.

The place is high end enough to have caregivers who are not working in multiple facilities. (Ironic, since my parents have always been cash-poor/land rich. Now that they are no longer farmers, scratching out a living evey year and have sold some of their land, they have enough money for a very comfortable retirement right around the corner or me).

So - they are pretty safe, but every worker who comes and goes brings with them whatever they are exposed to.

I'm less safe - given my house-mates. But I'm darn good at avoiding the flu - so I expect to be able to avoid it. My only challenge is that I typically relax when I'm home - and given how much my housemates go out I need to keep my guard up.

ETA: my grandmother survived the 1918 pandemic (and has never had the flu). My mother hasn't either. I've had it occasionally (I think 11 years ago was the last time). It's an entirely different disease - but I like to think there is some inherited immune system behavior that might be beneficial across all infectious diseases (or at least across viral infectious diseases).

[Thekaspervote]

25. Among all the bad..a glimmer of hope. If the ultra RW villages are at that point you know the

Rest of the country’s seniors are having the same doubts. Plus most, not all seniors listen to their children who are scared shitless for their parents, and know the idiot king must be removed

[CousinIT]

29. I hope they VOTE - and not absentee since those ballots won't be counted. n/t

[Baclava]

30. I just cancelled a dental appt for a cleaning, had one in Jan, told them I'll wait, make it Jul