This so-called ‘new normal’ had better not be the permanent ‘normal’

In 1920, Warren G. Harding’s campaign slogan was “a return to normalcy.” He won. Perhaps that ought to be Trump’s new slogan: “Make America Normal Again.”

One of the ickiest phrases around lately is the “new normal.” We’re told by leftist politicos and a thousand commercials that we’re in the “new normal.” This “normal,” we’re told, will last until there is a vaccine for the Wuhan China Virus. Achieving a vaccination currently has the 12th of Never as its deadline for completion.

The new normal is that I stand outside of Walmart and Trader Joe’s, in 90-degree weather with 90 percent humidity, waiting for permission to enter.

The new normal is that, when I go to the dentist, the waiting room is off-limits. Instead, I stand in the doorway while the masked receptionist quizzes me about my health history, makes sure I have a mask, waves a wand at me to take my temperature, and then tells me to wait outside in my car (with the engine running, spewing pollutants, so I can have life-giving air-conditioning) until I’m called in. When my appointment is over and I sign the various forms, the same masked receptionist blithely hands me her tablet and pen, neither disinfected, so that I can sign.

The worst thing, though, is how this “new normal” affects my hair cut. I currently look like Albert Einstein’s lost love child. It’s not pretty.

Even though (thankfully) South Carolina is not a “stay-at-home” lockdown state, the state, while leaving big box stores open, closed all hairstyling establishments. On the day they opened, I called my stylist and was able to get an appointment two weeks out.

During the appointment phone call, the receptionist told me that the stylist would be masked and gloved, that I must be masked, that I must check in from the parking lot via telephone, and that the receptionist will call me when I can enter, at which point she’ll wave an app at my to take my temperature. If I have one of my hot flashes, my temperature will be about 104 degrees. So much for the cheerful camaraderie of a hair salon.

That was bad enough. It got worse. With my appointment around the corner, I got an email with a form I have to complete to get my hair cut:

I don’t blame the hairstylist for this risible form. I know that it’s because she has to comply with the form, just as she has the new check-in rituals and mask and glove requirement, so that she can keep her insurance. However, I don’t want this to be the “new normal.”

The reality is that my county has had only 142 reported Wuhan China virus cases. The state of South Carolina estimates another 872 cases based upon an algorithm that says that, for every reported case, there might be another 6-8 cases that are so de minimus that they don’t merit a doctor’s visit.

Just to put that in perspective, my county has about 150,000 or more people. That means 0.09% of people in my county were diagnosed with the Wuhan China virus. I think 17 might have died, but I’m not sure. If that’s the case, then 0.01% of my county’s population will have succumbed to the virus. My county, incidentally, is over 25% black, which I note only because blacks have been more vulnerable to the virus.

The new normal is unacceptable. Where I live, 99.99% of all people are seemingly healthy. Why are we being treated as if this is the new bubonic plague? My objection to this “new normal” isn’t just me whining about the economic effects on a hairdressing establishment that can no longer have multiple customers or a restaurant that can only fill half its tables. This is also about the psychology of living as if we’re all dying.

If it weren’t for the insurance companies and the government, I think most people would snap back. While my Bay Area friends are busy virtue signaling like crazy about wearing masks, here in my little corner of South Carolina, masks are vanishing.

A month ago at the local Walmart, about 50% of the customers were wearing masks, especially black customers. A week ago at the local Walmart, maybe 10% of the customers were wearing masks. Staff members had masks, but many had just pulled them down to hang around their necks.

If my Bay Area friends were to see this, they’d start frothing about suicidal instincts and Trump poisoning people’s minds so that they clearly want to die. Frankly, I don’t think people here have a death wish; they have a normal wish.

I honestly believe that Trump would do well with a Make America Normal Again campaign. Combine that with what an Obama economist believes will be the biggest economic boom in American history, and you’ve got a winning combination.

Oh, did I not mention that economic boom? Here’s what Politico has to say:

In early April, Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration and now a professor at Harvard, was speaking via Zoom to a large bipartisan group of top officials from both parties. The economy had just been shut down, unemployment was spiking and some policymakers were predicting an era worse than the Great Depression. The economic carnage seemed likely to doom President Donald Trump’s chances at reelection.

Furman, tapped to give the opening presentation, looked into his screen of poorly lit boxes of frightened wonks and made a startling claim.

“We are about to see the best economic data we’ve seen in the history of this country,” he said.

I believe that too. If we’re just allowed to be normal, we’ll explode into prosperity, especially because Trump is loosening job-killing regulations.

You know what else Politico has to say?

Furman’s counterintuitive pitch has caused some Democrats, especially Obama alumni, around Washington to panic. “This is my big worry,” said a former Obama White House official who is still close to the former president. Asked about the level of concern among top party officials, he said, “It’s high — high, high, high, high.”

And top policy officials on the Biden campaign are preparing for a fall economic debate that might look very different than the one predicted at the start of the pandemic in March. “They are very much aware of this,” said an informal adviser.

You read that right. Democrats desperately want a failing economy because they think that’s the only way they can knock Trump out of the White House. That’s why the pressure for the New Normal. If we restore the old normal and get back to the business of America, Democrats are done for, they’re cooked, and they can’t even justify the fraud of mail-in ballots. And that’s why they keep the panic going, so I have to fill out a 14 question form to get my hair cut.