By Dave Gauger

Our 19th District State Representative Jim Walsh of Aberdeen just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to show off his conservative Republican credentials by joining an estimated crowd of 2,000 or more protesting Washingtonians when they converged on our State Capitol in Olympia. The purpose of the April 19 protest focused on Gov. Jay Inslee’s statewide stay-at-home order. Apparently, the protesters — some toting guns — consider the governor’s attempts to curtail the deadly spread of coronavirus a serious infringement of their cherished freedoms. Never mind that on the very day of the protest COVID-19 was credited with an additional 10 Washingtonian deaths.

Apparently to align their cause with patriotism, protesters in Olympia carried American flags. And further coloring their protest as red white and blue they carried Trump flags — apparently ignoring that their “patriotic” hero in the White House was a five-time Vietnam War draft dodger, that same guy who boasts repeatedly about not paying taxes.

Perhaps Rep. Walsh can explain why many of the protesters were packing pistols and semiautomatic rifles as they paraded around the Capitol grounds. When Rep. Walsh joined two other GOP lawmakers on the bullhorn platform he should have helped his supporters understand it’s impossible to shoot a virus. But then, little boys love to show off their toys.

According to a national public opinion survey of 5,000 Americans by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center 66 percent harbor concerns that stay-at-home restrictions might be removed too soon; thus, magnifying further our nation’s medical crisis. But apparently for our Washington State GOP lawmakers, citizen safety must take a back seat to potential negative economic fallout relating to President Trump’s political prospects in November. It’s from this selfish perspective that Rep. Walsh’s gun-toting buddies are pushing anti-quarantine safety policies beyond scientific reason.

During his speech Rep. Walsh should have explained to his super patriotic followers that social distancing is not a communist plot. Ooooops, I forgot, according to GOP operatives our nation is dealing with a “Communist Chinese Virus.” How un-American of me not to bow to this obvious fantasy!

According to the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation model, our country’s COVID-19 death rate will increase as states relax restrictions on businesses and social distancing.

It’s truly sad when one of our 19th District legislative representatives unabashedly aligns his political career with Dr. Donald J. Trump (self-certified M.D.). Of course I’m referring to the president of the United States, who during one of his infamous vanity briefings, prescribed hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19. And according to Dr. Trump’s medical recommendations, if that drug, originally intended for treatment of malaria, doesn’t provide appropriate protection from COVID-19 we could choose to be injected with Lysol or whatever commercial cleaning disinfectant is handily available.

Rep. Walsh, how long will you blindly follow like some simple-minded lapdog Dr. Trump’s twisted, clownish attempts to distract voters from reality? Much to Dr. Trump’s satisfaction, protests against stay-at-home orders have been occurring in state capitols throughout the country. They’ve garnered support from right-wing protesters, including the Proud Boys — a group enthusiastically welcomed at Trump rallies. It’s a natural fit with the current contours of Rep. Walsh’s Republican Party. For at least three years Proud Boys, with Republican support, has embraced a hyper-nationalist brand of racial bigotry. This group naturally supports Dr. Trump’s “scientific” theory that coronavirus was surreptitiously manufactured in a Chinese laboratory with intentions to disrupt socially and economically the United States and its European allies.

How long will one of our nation’s major political parties dutifully follow a leader who holds himself superior to reality — denying scientific data when it inconveniently contradicts his narcissistic goals?

Dave Gauger is a past president of Washington Newspaper Publishers Association (WNPA), and a former newspaper publisher and radio broadcaster in Raymond.