Got news for you, kiddies: we will never be back to normal, not if you define "normal" as the way America was before trump and the Coronoavirus. And I lump them together because although we might have survived one or the other and returned to the "old" normal, the two combined are a wallop from which we will never fully recover.
Had trump been more of a president, and less of a self-centered, spoiled, arrogant, self-righteous, hypocritical, sanctimonious, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, narcissistic, incestuous, ignorant, pompous, dictatorial, lying, thieving, corrupt, venal, fascist, childish, narrow-minded, Adderall-addicted, malignant asswipe of a walking, talking douchebag criminal, serial rapist, and confirmed pedophile, we might have made it through.
We've had bad presidents before -- Hoover springs to mind -- but America was able to survive because of the way our Founders wrote the Constitution and formulated our government. We've had presidents who have tried to pervert the Constitution -- Nixon, for instance -- but the co-equal branches of government, the Congress and the Judiciary, blocked those attempts. We've had corrupt presidents who would rather golf than do anything else (Harding).
We had useless legislative bodies before, such as the rethuglican-controlled Senate and House during the Obama years, when the mantra was "if [Obama] is for it, we had to be against it," even if it was good for the country.
We've had Supreme Court lineups that should never have happened, like the ones that gave us Plessy, Bush v Gore, Dred Scott, and Citizens United (respectively, 163 U.S. 537, 1896; 531 U.S. 98, 2000; 60 U.S. (16 How.) 393, 1857; and 558 U.S. 310, 2010).
But this is the first time all three have come together in a "perfect storm" of corruption, arrogance, and ignorance.
We have trump, arguably the worst president in history, as ranked by just any poll not conducted by a far-right organization. We have a corrupt Senate, ruled over by an anthropomorphic turtle who openly promised to work with the White House to ensure trump was not convicted in his impeachment trial. We have a SCOTUS that includes a black sexist, rapist, racist with a white wife, a white drunk frat boy rapist who boasted during his confirmation hearing that he "like[s]" beer (and, presumably, getting drunk and raping women) and three others who believe that corporations are people too, and should have more rights than other people.
Our nation has faced disasters of national impact, as well: Hurricane Katrina, the Great Depression, and, of course, September 11. But in those disasters, we had trained, dedicated, experienced responders available, people whose first -- and only priority -- was protecting the people of the United States.
Now, however, we have a disaster of epic proportions, a virus that could equal or even exceeed the death toll of the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu epidemic... and our "leaders" are morons and idiots chosen for their loyalty to the president, rather than to the people of the United States, a leader who repeatedly ignored and downplayed the dangers of the Covid-19 virus because he was afraid it would hurt his re-election chances (and, thus, increase his chances of being indicted, tried, convicted, and imprisoned -- most likely for life -- by the SDNY).
The Coronavirus scare will eventually settle down, at least a bit.
But we will never get back to the normal we knew. Too many families will have lost loved ones, often unnecessarily. Too many businesses will have failed. Too many unemployed will not be able to find new jobs.
"Social distancing" will become a fact of life.
Bars and restaurants will find their business models altered forever. Restaurants have been restricted to “to-go” and delivery orders only, with the partial offset of now being allowed to offer “alcohol-to-go” if accompanied by a food order. Here in Maine, as in other states, some restaurants are now offering groceries to their customers (to keep themselves in business, to ease strain on customers wishing to avoid traditional markets, and to prevent spoilage or waste; some have announced they may continue this service once the state of emergency is lifted). Buffet-style restaurants are at particular risk: San Diego-based Souplantationsclosed all 97 restaurants permanently due to their inherent inability to meet FDA recommendations, which also now discourage salad bars and self-serve beverages in fast-food restaurants. Golden Corral has closed its company-owned locations, at least temporarily, although franchise locations mostly remain open, but under strict scrutiny and sanitary programs. Old Country Buffet and HometownBuffet are likely to follow suit.
Here in Maine, much of the local economy is based on tourism. Coastal towns like Wiscasset, Boothbay Harbor, Camden, Rockport, Rockland, and Searsport are already showing more and more empty storefronts as smaller businesses call it quits because without sales, they can't make their expenses (utilities, insurance, rent, etc.). The town of Camden, so far, has been hit extremely hard: of all the businessses in town -- restaurants, boutiques, B&Bs, etc. -- only five business are open, by my count: the gas station/convenience store (on greatly-reduced hours), the supermarket (on reduced hours), one local market (on reduced hours) and two restaurants (both restricted to take-out only).
Festivals, fairs, and other large gatherings have been cancelled coast-to-coast. Here in Maine, among the big annual events not happening are the North Atlantic Blues Festival, the Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival and Regatta (a bunch of drunks in hollowed-out giant pumpkins, fitted with outboard motors, racing in Damariscotta Harbor), the Maine Lobster Festival, the Yarmouth Clam Festival, and the Common Ground Fair. While lobsters and clams may be breathing sighs of relief, these communities are looking at the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in much-needed income.
Major retailers like J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, and JC Penney have all filed bankruptcy; other companies like Sears are sure to follow suit.
To show you how bad things are here in Maine, L.L. Bean, which has prided itself on being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, closed all its retail stores in March. This is only the fifth time in the company's 100+ years of operation the flagship store has been closed... and the first time it's been closed for 24 hours or more (it was closed for four hours for the funerals of President Kennedy, founder LL Bean himself, former President/CEO Leon Gorman, and for a few hours due to a major fire across the street).
Another bellweather company, Waffle House, had closed ALL of its restaurants in the South for varying periods because of the pandemic. The “Waffle House Index,” originally proposed as a tongue-in-cheek disaster assessment factor in 2011, but subsequently adopted by FEMA, notes that closed Waffle House restaurants are indictive of “severe to catastrophic” damage in the area.
So, NO, we're never going to "get back to normal."
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