Jon Chait notes the wild inconsistencies of the GOP response to the Biden Administration's public health positions. He follows GOP critiques of Covid policy back to March of 2020, when Covid restrictions were simply a way for liberals to defeat Donald Trump by hurting America with lockdowns and quarantine measures. It was "just the flu" and the efforts taken to mitigate a disease that has killed at least a million Americans were simply a political stratagem. Tucker Carlson - vying for the honor of being the worst American after Donald Trump - predicted that after the election, Democrats would roll back Covid mitigation efforts, because, again, it was all theater.
Biden's team DID roll back some mitigation efforts in June, only for Delta to come along and kick people's ass. When Omicron came along, they tried to ramp those measures back up, but they ran into resistance from those who were "over the pandemic" because they are self-centered assholes. As vaccination becomes a way out of the pandemic, masking and the like becomes less tenable among those who are vaxxed and the "just the flu" crowd never cared in the first place.
This is example 1,963,744 of the GOP only understanding politics as a competition for power rather than as a means to provide public services. The reason we did Covid mitigation was to save lives. It's why we still do mitigation efforts. Since the overwhelming number of people dying are unvaccinated, there has been a strong movement among the vaccinated to relax all measures. The fact that deaths have neared their January 2021 peak doesn't seem to register with the "over the pandemic" crowd, whether they are vaxxed or not. The important thing for the GOP is the "optics" and the polling numbers.
The GOP does not stand for anything except the GOP being in power. I suppose tax cuts for the rich and deregulation count for something, but neither are especially popular. They need to feed on fear and the ephemera of politics rather than policy. Returning to masking this January was sucked, but it hasn't sucked THAT much. It's a hassle. I would rather not do it. But I'm a grown up and not a whiny ass titty baby like Tucker Carlson.
Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci want to save as many lives as possible from a deadly disease. Tucker Carlson wants you to hate Democrats more than you love your own health and wellbeing. And the GOP could very well win the midterms.
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