Analysis: Against Excessive Quarantine Protests

We have to talk about the latest #MAGA trend: protesting stay-at-home orders during a pandemic.

This week, seemingly out of nowhere, right-wingers held protests in State Capitals across the country. Similar events are being organized in other states. They’re organized mostly on 100+ Facebook groups that have sprung up over the past couple of weeks most of which are some variation of STATE or CITY Against Excessive Quarantine. (More on that in a moment.)

These events are unabashedly pro-Trump and visuals have included plenty of Trump gear, Confederate flags, anti-choice slogans, signs comparing state governors to Nazis, and random shitposting. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and other Pro-Trump media are cheering the protests unabashedly. President Trump, while live-tweeting Fox News, tweeted his support of the protests with multiple tweets in all caps. Or as Axios put it Trump is “accelerating the unrest”.

If this feels familiar to you that it’s because it’s the Tea Party playbook updated for 2020. The Tea Party was one of the largest astroturf operations I’ve ever seen in politics. Bankrolled by deep-pocketed right-wing donors but designed to look…