Republicans: continued

[Tero]

They have to stay out of state to Aug.4D3219A1-07CC-4C77-BFBA-35C7D5105799.jpeg
refusing to be present to vote on Texas voting law.
They cannot arrested outside Texas. They can ask states to arrest lawmakers, then bring them home.

[JimC]

American politics is just fucking weird...

[pErvinalia]

What a dysfunctional country.

[JimC]

Imagine Victorian pollies fleeing to Queensland, and Dictator Dan sending the goon squad after them!

[Tero]

Lauren Borbert is congresswoman for Colorado's 3rd district. It is about 50/50 dems and GOP. Her fate in2022 will be a good test of how long Trumpism survives.

[L'Emmerdeur]

I think Hartmann makes a reasonable case. Though he didn't mention it I would note a marked tendency of Republicans to project, in conjunction with repeated Republican claims that there was an effort to hurt Trump's prospects through anti-pandemic measures like lockdowns,

'Death is Their Election Strategy'

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN Medical Analyst, said last week, “A surprising amount of death will occur soon...” But why, when the deadly Delta variant is sweeping the world, are Republicans and their media warning people not to get vaccinated?

There’s always a reason. People don’t do things — particularly things involving a lot of effort and a need for consistency — without a reason. It just doesn’t happen. No matter how bizarre, twisted or dysfunctional the reason may be, there’s always a reason.

Dr. Anthony Fauci told Jake Tapper on CNN last Sunday, “I don’t have a really good reason why this [unwillingness to get vaccinated] is happening.”

But even if he can’t think of a reason why Republicans would trash talk vaccination and people would believe them, it’s definitely there.

Which is why it’s important to ask a couple of simple questions that all point to the actual reason why Republicans and their media are discouraging people from getting vaccinated:

1. Why did Trump get vaccinated in secret after Joe Biden won the election and his January 6th coup attempt failed?

2. Why are Fox “News” personalities discouraging people from getting vaccinated while refusing to say if they and the people they work with have been protected by vaccination?

3. Why was one of the biggest applause lines at CPAC: “They were hoping — the government was hoping — that they could sort of sucker 90% of the population into getting vaccinated and it isn’t happening!”

4. Why are Republican legislators in states around the country pushing laws that would “ban” private businesses from asking to see proof of vaccination status (they call it “banning vaccine passports”)?

5. Why, when President Biden suggested sending volunteers door-to-door into low-vaccination communities to let people know how and where they could get vaccinated, did rightwing media go nuts about “government thugs” coming to your door to “force” vaccines on you?

6. Why are about half of all the Republicans in Congress refusing to say if they’ve gotten a vaccine or not? For that matter, why do the CPAC speakers who are trashing vaccines refuse to say if they’re vaccinated or not?

7. Why would a Newsmax host trash-talk vaccines saying, “I feel like a vaccination in a weird way is just generally kind of going against nature”?

8. Why did Republican Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota downplay the dangers of Covid last week by bragging that she never shut her state down (and Ron DeSantis did) when SD has 230 Covid deaths per 100,000 people while similar low-population states like Vermont and Oregon are at 41 and 66 deaths per 100,000 respectively?

I hope I’m proven wrong on this, but the only possible explanation I can see for all this activity that seems so well-coordinated and largely consistent is that they all think there’s something in it for them. And what might that be?

Political power. And, of course, the eventual wealth that often comes with political power, particularly corrupt power. Retired Republicans make a lot of money.

Put simply, I believe these Republicans are trying to promote outbreaks of Covid in America to soften or damage Joe Biden’s red-hot economy on the assumption that if the economy tanks then people will vote out Democrats and vote in Republicans in 2022 and 2024.

As Pat Buchanan wrote today: “Are the Democrats headed for their Little Bighorn, with President Joe Biden as Col. Custer? The wish, you suggest, is father to the thought.”

They’re not just willing to let tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans die just to win the next two elections, they’re actively encouraging that outcome.

Death is their electoral strategy.

There's more, but I believe that's the gist. Another possibility is coordinated stupidity, I suppose.

[Sean Hayden]

We are obliged now to survive the next two elections...

Survive & Vote

Vote or Die --

[JimC]

I think that there is another layer to this Republican push against vaccination. Ever since Trump, their most fervent support has come from a variety of conspiracy theorists and a strong undercurrent of anti-science thinking in a worryingly large segment of the American public. By pandering to this sentiment, they are locking in their "true believers", even as they cynically and in secret get vaccinated themselves.

As an aside, I believe that the anti-science movement (as evidenced by attacks on people like Fauci) is strongly connected to a resentment by poor, working-class or unemployed white people of who they see as elites. Elites are educated. Scientists are educated, and they boss us around with their facts and rational arguments, as if our opinion isn't equal to theirs!

[Sean Hayden]

A person avoids a vaccine because they're afraid.

[JimC]

A person avoids a vaccine because they're afraid.

For some, that might be true (although there will be much variation, in terms of being afraid of what, exactly?). For others, they see themselves as being smart, avoiding the evil vaccinators...

[Sean Hayden]

It's too much to ask for a comprehensive list of fears; we're crazy.

...it's also fine that they be afraid and the other stuff as well.

[Seabass]

A person avoids a vaccine because they're afraid.

There's more going on here than just fear. It's typical reactionary thinking. The evil godless baby eating commie liberals are for it, so we must convince ourselves that it must be bad so we therefore must be against it.

[Sean Hayden]

I don't see how that works really, it certainly doesn't work for Trumpers in general.

What do we know about this particular group of Trumpers vaccination habits prior to Trump?

[JimC]

I don't see how that works really, it certainly doesn't work for Trumpers in general.

What do we know about this particular group of Trumpers vaccination habits prior to Trump?

I would be incredibly surprised if anti-vaxers in general were not mostly Trump supporters.

[Sean Hayden]

Anti-vaccination has been going strong for awhile now, and it's global. I'm guessing we'll find a fairly consistent amount of hesitation in the population across time and politics...