[majormajor]

> However, politicians and bureaucrats, unwilling to let a good crisis go to waste, have moved the goalposts so much that now the unspoken policy seems to be that a single infection/death is anathema and that everything should be done to prevent it.

Why do you think politicians want to shut things down?

What worldview do you ascribe to people where the view is "wow, this is a great chance to kill off people going to bars and bankrupt our city/state, I've always wanted to do that!"???

[achenatx]

dems want to shut things down because trump wants to keep them open.

One of the most common arguments for schools staying closed is "so you are ok with kids dying".

We have reached a point where as the OP implied, we have become hysterical about any deaths and dems will use that to crucify trump.

[bigwavedave]

It's not strictly because "they want the opposite of what the other guy wants", it's more to drive enough of working class to such desperation that any form of UBI will be widely demanded and then celebrated.

[TeaDrunk]

We have over a thousand people a day dying of this thing. What is anyone doing about it? The only people I see doing something are dems.

[krotton]

There's no Trump and dem opposition in the rest of the world, yet lockdowns have still been applied. US internal politics really is not the only reason why things happen.