President Donald Trump has vacillated on his constitutionally dubious claim that his “authority is total” in how America emerges from coronavirus lockdown. Why not take a stand and send the National Guard to clamp down on states with governors, such as Brian Kemp in Georgia, who are prematurely reopening businesses? Sure, it would be a big twist for Trump, who recently declared “LIBERATE MICHIGAN.” But the not-so-ideologically consistent president would get to exercise his love of gratuitous military displays … while marking the history books, in a manner similar to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s deployment of troops to desegregate Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957. 

He is an underdog, but at least he’s got bucks to match his bark. Senate candidate Jaime Harrison, the Democrat challenging Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina whose path back to power we covered in 2017, outraised the incumbent Republican $7.3 million to $5.6 million in the first quarter of 2020. The former state Democratic Party chairman and top congressional staffer who grew up poor in small-town Orangeburg has filled his war chest by enlisting D.C. bankrollers and star players like Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, who in March featured Harrison in a Zoom meeting of supporters and donors. While South Carolina is still a firmly red state, this 44-year-old comic book lover has superhero aspirations for the rise of the Southern left. 

From a digital standpoint, perhaps the most interesting moment in the Democratic primary came when Mike Bloomberg unleashed millions of dollars worth of memes. Now it looks like the Biden presidential campaign is considering drafting Hawkfish, the Bloomberg-owned digital consulting firm behind the former New York mayor’s $1 billion pratfall of a campaign. It may feel like a “How do you do, fellow kids?” move by the septuagenarian Democratic nominee. But hey, who are we to judge … maybe we’ll learn that Biden, too, has “moves like Jagger.” 

At least seven Milwaukee residents contracted coronavirus while voting in the April 7 elections, which went off as scheduled after a partisan deadlock. The decision was ridiculed by health and voting rights experts, particularly after Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican, declared it was “incredibly safe to go out,” while dressed in a protective mask, gloves and gown. Despite Democrats calling it “voter suppression on steroids,” liberals surprisingly won a key state Supreme Court seat and dominated the mail-in vote … perhaps giving credence to Republican fears that mail ballots lead to GOP losses.

It’s the debate that is raging across the nation — when will it be safe to open up shop? And whether you’re a Fauci fanatic or a Gadsden flag-waving Liberator, we want to hear from you: Which state do you call home and would you go back to normal life if your governor told you so? Send your thoughts to [email protected] and we’ll include the most interesting ones in next week’s edition.

Last week we asked whose endorsement would actually move the needle for you in the presidential race. Jene W. suggests a cross-partisan twist: Mitt Romney for Biden’s veep. And Cheryl M. has a “The Last Dance” themed suggestion: a joint LeBron James-Michael Jordan endorsement, bringing together all sides of the hyperpartisan Greatest of All Time debate.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spent considerable energy cultivating his country’s diaspora as a political asset. Yet now, during lockdown, he’s silent to their pleas to return home. His unresponsiveness is only one example of how the chaotic, uncoordinated global response to the coronavirus pandemic is creating a set of victims who have largely been ignored: hundreds of thousands of people from different nations stranded in foreign countries. It’s sparking diplomatic tensions and an avoidable humanitarian crisis, and could leave scars on travelers and overseas workers for years.

As a Georgia native and lifelong Falcons fan, this critique of my home state’s early virus reopening stung. No, I will not link to a clip of the Super Bowl referenced therein.