Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh raised the question all Americans should be asking.  The question was not "What happens if we open the economy back up too quickly?"  Rather, it was "What happens if we open the economy back up too late?"  I believe we have already crossed that line, because too many governors and too many big-city mayors are relishing their exercise in power and a small medical hierarchy is given far too much credibility.

The dominoes are beginning to fall.  Two restaurants that my wife and I have frequented for years have declared that they will not reopen.  The months-long lack of revenue, coupled with new regulations, has made it impossible for them to continue.  The woman who cuts what is left of my hair and always made me presentable for public view has told me she will not be going back to work at her shop.  The dangers of this virus, both the real danger of a highly survivable disease and the more frightening possibilities propagated by the media, have scared her out of business.  She will stay at home and try to cope.  And Nieman-Marcus has declared bankruptcy.

The large retail establishment is not closing its stores.  Rather, our bankruptcy laws will allow the corporation to delay, and in some cases, eliminate, payments to their suppliers and others to whom they owe money.  Nieman-Marcus will live to see another day, but what about its suppliers and landlords and employees?  What about those who don't have the financial wherewithal to survive this economic downtime?

My wife and I undoubtedly still have plenty of choices when it comes to restaurants.  We have ventured out.  We've sat the required distance from other tables.  The food and service have been good, and I have tipped exorbitantly.  But I have to wonder how long these establishments can survive with less than full capacity.  A lot more of our dining choices are going to disappear if this "new normal" is allowed to prevail.

I'm sure I can find someone else to cut my hair.  I may end up not looking as presentable as when my old barber did the trimming, but most of my friends don't think I look that good anyway.  But the pretty and handsome among you are going to suffer as well.

I reject the argument that those who want to reopen don't care about how many die.  That is nonsense and hardly worth a response.  Mortality has become the last refuge of these scoundrels.

It's time to remind these petty tyrants, these gauleiters intent on disrupting the 2020 presidential election, that they are hoping to be re-elected as well.  The public will not forget who is to blame for a crashed economy, and the governors and mayors who hesitate to put their citizens back to work should pay a steep price.