Joan Walsh on Ebola Victim: ‘Probably No Accident’ He Died in ‘Rick Perry’s Texas’

It’s always remarkable how quickly a tragedy can be snatched up and used for political points as we saw with conservative pundit Katie Pavlich. Of course, it happens on the left, too. Enter Salon’s Joan Walsh.

In her latest column, Walsh latches on to the corpse of Liberian man Thomas Eric Duncan, who died in Texas shortly after being diagnosed with Ebola, and ties his death to Gov. Rick Perry (R).

“It’s probably no accident, either, that it happened in Rick Perry’s Texas,” Walsh writes. “More than 1.5 million Texans, with a median income of $833, are going uninsured because Perry rejected Medicaid funding.”

To her credit, Walsh at least acknowledges that as a non-U.S. citizen, Duncan was not elligible to receive Medicaid. But why should that stop her from going for a slam dunk?

Walsh:

Medicaid wouldn’t have helped Duncan, but it might help someone exposed to him. Right now Youngor Jallah, the woman who got Duncan to the hospital when his symptoms worsened, says she doesn’t have Medicaid or any health insurance.

The only way Walsh could have been more like a bird on roadkill here is if Duncan had died from a hit-and-run.

Here it’s worth remembering Republican pollster Frank Luntz who said recently that people look “stupid” when they use Ebola as “political ammo.”

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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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