As the coronavirus surges in their states and districts, fanned by a more contagious variant exploiting paltry vaccination rates, many congressional Republicans have declined to push back against vaccine skeptics in their party who are sowing mistrust about the shots’ safety and effectiveness.
Amid a widening partisan divide over coronavirus vaccination, most Republicans have either stoked or ignored the flood of misinformation reaching their constituents and instead focused their message about the vaccine on disparaging President Biden, characterizing his drive to inoculate Americans as politically motivated and heavy-handed.
On Tuesday, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican who said he had received his first Pfizer vaccine shot only on Sunday, blamed the hesitance on Mr. Biden and his criticism of Donald J. Trump’s vaccine drive last year. Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, said skeptics would not get their shots until “this administration acknowledges the efforts of the last one.”
And Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas pointed the finger at the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci.
“Every time Jen Psaki opens her mouth or Dr. Fauci opens his mouth,” he said, “10,000 more people say I’m never going to take the vaccine.”
Some elected Republicans are the ones spreading the falsehoods. Representative Jason Smith of Missouri, a Senate candidate, warned on Twitter of “KGB-style” agents knocking on the doors of unvaccinated Americans — a reference to Mr. Biden’s door-to-door vaccine outreach campaign.
Such statements, and the widespread silence by Republicans in the face of vaccine skepticism, are beginning to alarm some strategists and party leaders.
“The way to avoid getting back into the hospital is to get vaccinated,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader and a polio survivor, pleaded on Tuesday, one of the few members of his party to take a different approach. “And I want to encourage everybody to do that and to ignore all of these other voices that are giving demonstrably bad advice.”
The fact that Mitch is saying this means that they really are worried about where this is going.
I suspect that some of these Republican governors think they may be able to leverage this anti-vax/mask activism into something like the Obamacare town halls which led to a Democratic rout in 2010. I think they are wrong.
The same nihilistic impulse that led Republicans to lose their minds over the Affordable Care Act is at work with this irrational anti-vax activism, but the circumstances are very different. First of all, these people aren’t protesting the first black president proposing a “government giveaway” to the so-called undeserving which was at the heart of the anti-Obamacare protests. Neither is it an abstract issue as it was for the majority of people who had insurance in 2009, particularly those who had America’s best health care program Medicare. Those people had no immediate skin in the game, making it easy to oppose.
COVID is not like that. Yes, it’s about health which seems to make Republicans insane. But this time everyone is affected. 660,000 people are dead, one out of every 500 Americans and it isn’t about the “undeserving” or taxpayer money. They may get their raucous town halls and maybe even some deadly violence. But I doubt very seriously that they will be able to get a majority of Americans to vote for them on this basis and perhaps
80% of Democrats back the plan to require U.S. employers with at least 100 workers to mandate vaccinations or testing vs. 33% of Republicans who say the same.
About two-thirds of Democrats say vaccine requirements protect the rights of Americans, and just as many Republicans say the mandates violate those rights.
Roughly 3 in 5 U.S. adults think the White House plan will result in reduced COVID-19 cases and increased vaccination rates.
Democrats layed out in 2010, content to let president Obama and the Democratic majority handle politics while they watched TV. I don’t think they’ll do that this time. The Republicans are sufficiently radical that the Democratic base remains engaged and active. Raging about vaccine mandates is far more likely to result in overwhelming backlash than electoral victory.
Of course Republicans have already made it clear that the only way they can lose elections is if Democrats steal them so …