‘Virus is a virus,’ Republicans say
The first mention of the coronavirus pandemic was a joke.
Amaster of ceremonies was explaining to a crowd of more than 100 people why the keynote speakers — home-state Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott — were running a bit late.
“You have to understand, they haven’t got to do any politicking for a while,” said the emcee, Robert Rabon of the Horry County Republican Party. “They’re like a kid in a candy store — they’re going wild!”
And, with that passing mention, South Carolina Republicans returned to the normal rhythm of the campaign trail, coronavirus all the same.
The outdoor gathering here Thursday was a send-off event for Cleo Steele, a longtime Republican Party operative in Horry County, who is retiring to Ohio. Speakers shared the same microphone. Local and state political candidates greeted voters with handshakes and squeezed tight for pictures. Of all the people gathered outside the county Republican office — many of them senior citizens — fewer than a dozen wore masks.
According to interviews with more than a dozen attendees, the event was an active rejection of behaviour that the hyperconservative crowd has come to associate with liberal enemies in recent months — wearing masks and gloves, staying two metres away from other people, avoiding physical touch.
To treat the coronavirus as something to be feared, they said, was a political act incongruous with their values.
Dwayne “Duke” Buckner, who is challenging Graham in the Republican Senate primary next month and came to the event to meet voters, said he had recently stopped adhering to public health guidelines, which he described as overly burdensome.
“You can quote me on this,” he said. “When the good Lord calls you home, a mask ain’t going to stop it.”
August Savello, 49, said he followed Dr. Steven Hotze, a Republican activist who has published videos such as “Coronavirus Mass Hysteria,” and preferred to do his own research rather than listening to state and federal public health officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“A virus is a virus is a virus, and there’s viruses around us all the time,” he said. “My father had it, and he’s 79 years old. He said it was like a bad flu.”
At the program’s conclusion, Rabon called up more than a dozen state and local candidates, who introduced themselves to the audience and shared a portion of their political platform. “Candidates — state House, state Senate and the House — line up,” Rabon said. “Don’t take a long time.”
He coughed into the microphone and passed it to the first speaker.