“We’ll listen to a lot of science, we’ll listen to a lot of doctors and Governor Abbott, myself and other state leaders will make the decision — no thank you, Dr. Fauci.”~Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick to Laura Ingraham

Do you know your states Lt. Governor? I can picture who mine is but I had to use Google to find out that in Illinois, ours is Juliana Stratton. There’s really no reason to be concerned about the person in that position. I think of the Lt. Governor the same as I do the first runner-up in the Miss America contest. If something goes wrong and your Governor can’t perform the duties of his/her position, then the second spot steps in. Unless your main man is Rod Blagojevich, you most likely won’t be seen or heard for four years. It’s a pretty sweet gig. Nice paycheck with little responsibility.

Meet Dan Patrick…no not the sports talk host…this Dan Patrick is the Lt. Governor of Texas. For some unknown reason, he’s been sought out by the conservative media as a go to guy for his opinions on the Coronavirus pandemic. I don’t get why? I know Texas has seen an intense spike in Coronavirus cases, but you’d think there would be bigger names you could find to comment on the situation. Maybe it’s just me, but if I’m Laura Ingraham or Tucker Carlson, who both have had Patrick on their shows, I’d be aiming for Texas Governor Greg Abbott or one of thee states senators Ted Cruz or John Cornyn, right? They shouldn’t have to settle for a flunky with a title.

I guess you settle for whoever is available and Patrick’s job makes him available pretty close 24/7/365. They’re also looking for people with controversial opinions and there are few who say more shit than Dan Patrick. It started on March 23, only about ten days into the pandemic lockdown, when he told Carlson that he would be willing to risk his life if would avoid an economic shutdown. He doubled down by saying he thought many grandparents agreed with him.

Next he jumped on the hydroxychloroquine as a drug to fight the virus bandwagon. Apparently Dan Patrick has a medical degree?

Then on April 23, again with Carlson, he doubled down on his grandparents dying rant from a month earlier:

“What I said when I was with you that night, there are more important things than living. And that’s saving this country for my children, and my grandchildren and saving this country for all of us. And I don’t want to die, nobody wants to die, but man, we got to take some risks and get back in the game, and get this country back up and running.

So while Patrick has been dissing the science, there’s been a recent spike in Caronavirus cases. Texas has been among the hardest hit states. On Tuesday, there were almost seven thousand new cases reported. They’ve moved into the top five nationally with more than 165,000 total cases and almost 2,500 deaths. The capital of Austin has been hit extremely hard. The nations top health experts are extremely concerned. It led to Dr. Anthony Fauci telling the Senate:

“We’ve got to make sure that when states start to try and open again, they need to follow the guidelines that have been very carefully laid out, with regard to checkpoints. What we’ve seen in several states are different iterations of that, perhaps maybe in some, going too quickly and skipping over some of the checkpoints.”

Apparently that pissed off Patrick, which led to his remarks to Laura Ingraham at the top of this piece. It makes sense that they’re talking because neither of them like what they hear from Fauci. Kindred spirits, science deniers.

While all of this would normally make sane folks just shake their head; in a pandemic, this type of behavior is dangerous. Sadly, beliefs and actions like those of Dan Patrick can and has cost Texas citizens their health and in a lot of cases, their lives. And you know it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

If you’re from one of the other forty-nine states, be happy your Lt. Governor lays back and keeps quiet. If you’re from Texas, our thoughts are with you. You’ll get your chance to redeem yourselves in 2022. Hopefully at that time, you won’t know who your Lt. Governor is.

Related Post: I don’t blame Donald Trump for the coronavirus, but…….

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