WASHINGTON: Some are comparing it to the Tienanmen moment. A male nurse in green scrubs is blocking the path of a silver-colored pick-up truck at a busy intersection in downtown Denver amid the din of car horns blaring all around. A woman in a stars and stripes shirt pops out of the passenger window with a poster that says, “Land of the Free.” She yells at him: “This is a free country…Go to China if you want communism!”
The clip, shared widely and seen millions of times on social media since it was posted on Sunday evening, illustrates the deep divide that is tearing America apart. It highlights the rift between a population stewing resentfully at being forced to shutter down because of the coronavirus and which believes accounts of the pandemic are exaggerated, and the shutdown solution is worse than the problem, and those – including first responders like the nurse – who think the lockdown is for the national good and anyone who defies it is selfish.
By Monday morning, the hashtag #GoToChina was trending on social media as Americans weighed in on anti-quarantine demonstrators who want to re-open the country for work (and saving their jobs), and “safety first” counter-protesters across the country. “Only in america will an america