USA Today should apologize to Wisconsin

Newsweek reported, "In Wisconsin, One of the First States to Reopen, Corona Virus Cases Are Declining."

That's nice, but Wisconsin did not re-open. Its Supreme Court refused to let its fascist Democrat governor shutter the state.

First the governor tried to use covid-19 to cancel the primary election and replace it with a mail-in substitute.

The court read the state constitution and state law, and told him to pound salt. The election went on as planned. Democrats predicted death, destruction, and carnage.

The USA Today editorial board wrote, "Exercising your right to vote in America shouldn't involve waiting in hours-long lines and risking your health.

"But that was the situation on Tuesday in Wisconsin, which pressed ahead with its primary despite the corona virus pandemic and a shortage of poll workers. Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, had wisely tried to postpone the election until June 9 and expand absentee voting. Late Monday, however, his executive order was overruled by the highly politicized Wisconsin Supreme Court.

"The mess in Wisconsin, one of the most important battleground states in the upcoming presidential election, should serve as warning for the rest of the nation. With the possibility of a second-wave outbreak of covid-19 this fall, and in the absence of an effective treatment, it's prudent to start planning for a presidential election conducted primarily by absentee ballot."

USA Today was wrong.

470,000 people voted or worked the election. 52 contracted covid-19 afterward. Whether this was election-related is unclear. What is clear is "the highly politicized Wisconsin Supreme Court" was correct.

USA Today should apologize.

But it gets better.

A month later after the same "highly politicized Wisconsin Supreme Court" ordered the state re-opened, USA Today ran a piece by college student Christian Schneider that was as mixed up as its headline, "Wisconsin's economy is reopening and it's a hot corona virus mess. Don't do what we did. The Republican plan all along was to thwart any plan. Granted a seat at the table, they now have set the table on fire and thrown it out the window."

He ended his piece, "Ultimately, it is now up to the state’s citizens to practice responsible distancing, wear masks and take other necessary precautions. But the rush to get back to the bars does not inspire confidence that everyone will be taking this seriously enough. At the end of a long night of drinking, beer goggles no doubt make covid-19 look pretty enticing."

He was wrong.

Newsweek reported, "As the total number of virus cases in the U.S. surpassed 2 million on Wednesday, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said the state's case count since the pandemic began reached 21,593, with 671 confirmed deaths from COVID-19.

"The 285 new cases state health officials reported Wednesday came just one day after the state reported its lowest percentage of positive tests so far, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Though the percentage of residents who tested positive increased from 1.9 on Tuesday to 2.8 on Wednesday, the percentage of positive tests has remained below 3 percent for the past several days as the state reported a two-week decline in new case numbers, the paper said."

The idea of adults being trusted to make their own decisions may be foreign to someone still in college, but surely the staff at USA Today knows better.

USA Today maligned Wisconsin. Twice. It was wrong both times. USA Today attacked Wisconsin's Supreme Court. Twice. It was wrong both times. USA Today attacked Republican legislators. Twice. It was wrong both times.

The newspaper needs to apologize to each party. Twice.