Having driven this past month from my home in Kansas City, Missouri, to my summer digs in Chautauqua County, New York, to my annual family reunion in my home state of New Jersey, I can confirm that this is easily the stupidest period in American history and arguably the most oppressive. That said, I did see some glimmers of hope along the way, more on that in a minute.

As to stupid, on July 21, while I was in New Jersey, Missouri was added to that state’s “travel advisory list.” This means that “individuals entering New Jersey from states with a significant spread of COVID-19 should quarantine for 14-days after leaving that state.”

The specific formula is too convoluted to understand, let alone explain. What I do know is that I left a place where no one I know has had the disease and arrived at a place where most of the people I know have had it.  I do not exaggerate. As of July 25, there have been 43 deaths in Kansas City, a city of roughly 500,000 people. Ocean County, New Jersey, where I was staying, has slightly more people—576,000—but 25 times more deaths, 1,014 to be precise. and I am supposed to quarantine?

Chautauqua County, on the western edge of New York State, has had only seven deaths but has had to labor under the same Draconian rules as New York City. Here, as everywhere, conservatives have instinctively rebelled against the imposition of these ever-changing, self-defeating mandates. One local restaurant posted a huge sign out front: “We Support the U.S. Constitution. Open Up New York.” I go there regularly.

In New York State, as everywhere, liberals take pride in their submissiveness and in their masks. As their yard signs insist, “Science is real.” But those same signs begin with the menacing “Black lives matter” and conclude with the delusional, “Kindness is everything.”

Neither in Chautauqua County nor in Kansas City have I heard a Covid story. In New Jersey, I heard tons of them. I found myself the odd man out in a group of ten people the other night, eight of whom have had the disease, and the ninth was married to a guy who did.

The victims ranged in ages from mid-30’s to mid-70’s. The symptoms ranged from a two-day headache to a two-week fever that topped out at 102. No one went to the hospital. No one wanted to, the consensus being that your chances of dying were greater in the hospital than out.

Although the death figures have been inflated, people have died. One of them was a first cousin of mine, 60 at the time of her death. She had two major points of vulnerability, one of which I will mention only as a public service, and that is obesity.

The front-line doctors with whom I have spoken cite morbid obesity as the dominant factor in high risk cases. The science here is real, but the media suppress it for fear of being accused of “fat shaming.” This deference to the PC canon has endangered millions of Americans, but it has spared reporters abuse from liberal Twitter mobs for whom kindness, apparently, is not everything.

The media have a secondary reason for their silence. To acknowledge obesity as a cause would make it harder to blame President Trump for any disparities between us and the rest of the world. If people have to die to keep the heat on Trump, so be it.

As to the president, I have seen large “Trump” signs wherever I traveled. Incredibly, on the ethnically diverse Seaside Heights boardwalk, there is a shop that sells only Trump merchandise. I saw no “Biden” signs anywhere and certainly no Biden shop.

I stay away from the prediction business, but I have talked to no Trump voters from 2016 who plan to vote for Biden (or whatever Democrat ends up on the ticket.) I have, however, talked to several people who did not vote for Trump in 2016 but will vote for him this time, a few enthusiastically.

In some cases, the support is based on an appreciation for Trump; in others on a growing disgust at the chaotic nonsense the Democratic Party has enabled, even encouraged. If there is a method to the left’s madness, the average voter doesn’t know what it is. Some people who voted for Trump in 2016 only because he wasn’t Hillary now have come to see him as our Charles Martel, the unlikely last defender of Western civilization.

The polls this time around -- on any question -- will be less reliable than usual. Most major employers, private as well as public, have made clear their ostensible support for Black Lives Matter. To question the agenda of this absurd Marxist organization, conceived in one fraud and nurtured in another, is to risk one’s job.

As my nephew Alex explained, the “silent” majority has become the “silenced” majority. There is no denying the “silenced.” Here is hoping he is right about the “majority.”

 All photos by author

@jackcashill’s forthcoming book, Unmasking Obama: The Fight to Tell the True Story of a Failed Presidency, is available for pre-order at https://amzn.to/2VHOnS8