Proof that the Branch Covidians are Astro Turf
After another flop drive by protest on Monday at the Mayor's office, the week just got worse for Tulsa 912 leader Ronda Vuillemont Smith. Politico got hold of a leaked document from Freedom Works proving that the protests that broke out the last few weeks weren't spontaneous uprisings but planned by Freedom Works on a national level.
The Politico story claims that the OKC rally was done two days after Freedom Works coordinated with Tulsa 912 and that other rallies were also coordinated. The story also pointed out that Americans for Prosperity has backed away from supporting the rallies in an effort to not be seen as opposing President Trump.
The story is wrong about one point, this isn't liberal supporting the lock downs and conservatives opposing them, in fact the lock downs had wide conservative support for the first five weeks and now many conservatives, the majority in fact, are ready to re open the handful of industries that were shuttered in Oklahoma. Those supporting the protests tend to be more far right wing, Alex Jones supporters, John Birch Society types, and libertarian/anarchist types.
The vast majority of Republicans and conservatives support President Trump's plan to slowly re open the closed industries, mostly restaurants, movies, and crowded type businesses while carefully watching the statistics to minimize any risk of a second wave of infections. Most see the Branch Covidian protests as foolish and ineffective, a waste of reputation and gravitas for the handful of activists involved. Most believe in some sort of grand conspiracy, that somehow the entire world decided to lock down for no reason, that the virus is some sort of mass hoax spread by the liberals and deep state people wishing to harm Trump in the November election. In fact, what would hurt the most was not being responsible and having a second wave turn states in to hot beds of infection and death like New York City.
Here in Oklahoma we are in decent shape. The five weeks of isolation seems to have helped flatten the curve and we have 195 deaths as of Sunday, not bad compared to many states. Stitt re opened some of the few industries that were locked down on Friday and more are expected to re open on May 1st. Things like mass sporting events and crowded movie theaters might take a bit longer to be able to open if not for governmental reasons, for the reason that employees and customers might not trust coming to a crowded venue.
