Why are some US states protesting and others happy to be locked down?

As New York remains under strict lockdown, with face masks legally required for visits to the grocery store, the rest of the US is responding to a wave of anti-quarantine protests. Last week, us east-coasters looked on in horror as armed men, some of whom were brandishing AK-47s, stormed the statehouse in Michigan in an attempt to intimidate governors. Lawmakers went to work the next day in bulletproof vests. Although these were touted as “peaceful” protests by Americans across the south and midwest, it seems disingenuous to refer to something as wholly peaceful when the people involved made it clear they could blow any detractors to pieces with a casual movement of the finger.

New York feels a world away from states like Michigan when such incidents hit the news: although guns are allowed across the US, state-by-state laws vary wildly and you’d never so much as see a civilian openly brandishing a handgun in New York City, when you might very well find a passerby openly carrying an assault rifle in a supermarket or on a college campus in another state. Trump voters are right when they say that red states are often culturally miles apart from blue states, and that’s just one example. There’s a reason why Texas has zero income tax and New York City has income tax comparable to the high rates (by American standards) in the UK: collectivism is the norm here, while states like Texas prize individualism, consumerism and “every man out for himself”.

This state of affairs also means there are very few financial safety nets for Texans, Alabamans, Michiganders (yes, Michiganders) and other midwest or southern low-income tax states – and that they are much more vulnerable to financial collapse if people aren’t going out and buying things, since they rely almost entirely on sales tax. Little wonder, then, that these people have been clamouring to get back to work after two months of partial or complete lockdown, depending on where in the US they live.

Where does the president stand on all of this? Well, when he’s not recommending we inject bleach straight into our veins, Trump has been trying to play both sides of the protests. He’s urged the Georgia governor to “make a deal” with protesters, for example, while also holding off on making any national pronouncements about ending lockdown because he knows full well that coronavirus cases will spike if he does so. With his eyes on the prize of the November election, he’s clearly calculating whether a short-term win in allowing states to open up will be worth it – or whether the long-term consequences of increased illness and death among his target demographics will hit him hard at the end of the year.

Thirty-five states are now beginning to reopen, with some allowing more freedoms than others: in Georgia, you can now go bowling, get your hair done or even get a tattoo, but in Iowa you can’t do any of that, though you can go to a restaurant for a socially distanced meal. In Arkansas, large gatherings and religious services have resumed with guidelines about size limitations and mask-wearing. In Colorado, universities and offices have opened, as well as restaurants and bars so long as they stick to 50 per cent occupancy. Some counties in California are sheltering in place until the end of May, while others are opening up for modest outdoor activities and essential childcare. In other words, it’s a very mixed bag.

My fiancé and I clicked through images on our phones the other day that felt illicit and taboo: photos of people having their hair washed in salons by masked stylists; sunny pictures of people queueing at the beach for cocktails at pop-up bars over the balmy weekend. A small outdoor market still opens on Saturday mornings near our local park in Brooklyn and we avoid it quite literally like the plague. I would love to have the inches of stringy grey hair at the top of my head dyed out by a professional right now, though I’m willing to preserve my new signature “Ursula the sea-witch” aesthetic for another two months – even another two years – if it saves the lives of the people around me.

When will New York open up? That’s the billion-dollar question, again quite literally. New York’s economy is crucial to the survival of the United States and as much as people might take a personal financial boost from being able to open their stores in Kentucky, the country can’t tick along very long without the help of still-quarantining New York City and San Francisco. Undoubtedly our lives would be a lot nicer than they are now if steps were taken to follow the southerners’ lead, but most New Yorkers remain sceptical. We’ve spent this long doing Zoom calls in our pyjamas from studio apartments piling high with takeout boxes. For the sake of the greater good, why not carry it on a little longer?