I feel like this is not quite true? At the immediate outbreak the right was generally serious. R governors were reasonable policy. It’s not until April/May 2020 that I started hearing the conspiracy theories that would coalesce into the Great Barrington et al
When *you* started hearing it. I can assure you that, in the swamps, the time between the virus becoming known and the time of deranged conspiracy theories blaming Dems for all of it was approximately zero seconds.
And we know from Bob Woodward's reporting that Trump's own understanding of the danger was pretty clear (after phone call with Xi) even as he continued publicly to minimize it.
Immediately they were calling it “another Democrat hoax to make Trump look bad.” Immediately.
My R Governor in Ohio started strong. I think he was the 1st to close schools, on March 13. It was initially for 2 weeks and no one complained much. Once he extended it beyond two weeks, the right lost their minds. He weakened response & the Dr advising him was forced out and received death threats