Of course in the cases of many on the tRump side of the political spectrum, the masks were never on in the first place. As Paul Krugman points out, the political right has drunk the Kool Aid of the "greed is good" gospel and caring for other people's health and well being is not something they are prepared to do.
Many of us have mocked those who buckle up, wear shirts and shoes and obey the hundreds of other rules and commonsense precautions which keep us and them safe every day. Then why the jihad against wearing masks. Krugman maintains it is the basic selfishness which characterizes the political right in general and the GOP in particular. Having made the wearing of masks a mark of solidarity with the president*, his adherents have gone all in, despite the abundant evidence mask wearing is effective in slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
Like the bans on phosphate in detergents or efficiency standards for light bulbs, the right is outraged at any regulation which inhibits their ability to maximize profit and minimize regards for the common good. This sounds like a caricature on the order of Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life", but the outrage of many when tRump suggested mask wearing might even be patriotic virtually proves the comparison.
The same thing goes for anti vaxxers who send their unprotected children to mingle with others and compromise herd immunity by their selfishness. Many other societies are coping well with Covid 19. Why can't we do the same? It would seem a sizable fraction of our polity is hell bent on letting the body count increase in pursuit of an ideology of personal maximization at the expense of social welfare.
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