No civil war on the horizon

I’m not sure how many people think this, but I spoke with a woman, a friend, last week who’s worried that a civil war is on the horizon because so many Americans are split over COVID, the vaccinations, and how to mitigate the spread of the SARS virus. Some Americans also get into fights over facemasks.

Granted, Americans are probably split more than ever before, save the early 1860s, but maybe that’s what a pandemic can do to a country — split it right down the middle.

Only thing is, there is no way to have a civil war because there’s no clear line of demarcation such as the Mason-Dixon line. The split isn’t geographical because it takes place in the mind, not in any geographical location.

OK, it’s split to some degree in geographical terms. The top 10 states that voted for Trump are also the least vaccinated, that sort of thing. The top 10 states that voted for President Joe Biden are the most vaccinated. Surveys have shown that Donald Trump supporters are the least likely to get the COVID vaccine. (Source: NPR.) In every city, coun

In every city, county, and state in the U.S. there are people who believe that COVID is real and it only makes sense to get vaccinated and wear a facemask around other people, and there are people who refuse to accept the fact that more than 800,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID, and they believe that if you get either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, you’re a government patsy, or so they believe. Either that, or Bill Gates has placed a tracking device in the vaccines. Some crazy stuff, but that’s America today. We’re all tripping. We just don’t know it.

When I told my friend that she doesn’t have to worry about a civil war, given the geographic problem of staging such a war, she said she was worried that the animosity would filter down into neighborhoods.

I told her, I don’t even talk to most of my neighbors, so I have no idea what they think about COVID unless they still have a Trump or Biden campaign sign in the their front yard. They could be pro-vaccines or anti-vaccines, and I would have no clue. So who’s going to get into a fight?

There’s no doubt that COVID is politicized. Almost every store I go to in Hidalgo County these days, approximately 85% of the people are wearing a facemask, which also tells me that they’re probably vaccinated as well. So, I’d say overall, the residents of Hidalgo County are pretty much in tune with what COVID can do and the best way to prevent an infection. The fact that between 75% and 90% of the COVID patients lying sick in hospitals around the state and nation include the unvaccinated should tell people something — “Get vaccinated,” but apparently it doesn’t. Go figure.

Before Christmas, I walked into a local gun store. Of the 20 to 30 guys hanging around the gun counter, I was only one of three people wearing a facemask. I’m also guessing the majority weren’t vaccinated.

So, is the country divided? Yes, but there will never be any largescale fight over COVID, no civil war. Everyone is too busy just trying to stay alive.