Biden, Republicans, and the Pandemic Blame Game


President Biden is in trouble: He has campaigned on ideas that he has the team to manage a pandemic and that his five-year career as a deal maker in Washington is just the ticket to overcoming the country’s political polarization.

This does not happen, not even a little.

Not only are Republicans resisting Mr Biden’s pressure to end the pandemic, some are actively blocking it. Republican governors slowed vaccine efforts and lifted mask requirements prematurely. GOP leaders in Washington, like second-place Republican Representative Steve Scalise – who is he not vaccinated until about two weeks ago – mock public health guidance He said that even vaccinated people should wear masks indoors as “government control”.

There is little Mr. Biden can do. The pandemic life, which lasted about a year and a half, definitively revealed who will and will not comply with public health rules.

Just last week, in my Washington neighborhood among the highest vaccination rates in the city and 92 percent voted for Mr. Biden, people began to re-mask outdoors in supermarkets and even in parks.

In places like Arkansas, hospitals are full of Covid patients and vaccination rates remain stubbornly low. The anti-mask sentiment is so strong that the state’s General Assembly passed a law banning any duties requiring them. On Thursday, Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson, parliament declared special session He amended the anti-mandate law he signed in April, asking schools to be allowed to require masks for students too young to receive the vaccine. Good luck with that, other Republicans in the legislature replied.

This puts the president in a difficult position. As the delta variant manifests itself much more contagious and dangerous More than in previous iterations of the virus, the people who most need to hear its message about vaccines and masks are the least likely.

Six years of Donald J. Trump massively blocks out all the other sounds in your party They have deprived Republicans of a reliable messenger to force vaccines even if they wanted to. Minority leader Senator Mitch McConnell may be using campaign money running pro-vaccine ads in his hometown of Kentucky, but he is not a well-liked figure in the party and is seen by his base as just another member of the Washington establishment.

There are certainly other communities of vaccine resistance, including people’s demographics. historically abused by the federal government (and also small but vocal minority of the professional athletes and Olympians), but it’s the Republicans and Republican states that have emerged as the biggest hurdles in America’s immunization efforts.

little ability to persuade those who are hesitant about the vaccine, and some help from the party Mr. Biden and the federal government had promised to work together, in a move he had resisted for weeks: making life more difficult for the unvaccinated, to force them to change their minds.

Which brings us to the president’s press conference on Thursday. Mr. Biden, for the first time of all federal employees they should have shown proof that they were vaccinated (or wear a mask at work), attend weekly quizzes, and maintain social distancing.

It failed to meet a vaccination requirement, saying such a requirement is a decision for local governments, school districts, and companies. He said that if things go bad and those who resist vaccines are barred from work and public spaces, then maybe things will get better.

“My guess is that if we don’t start making more progress, a lot of businesses and many businesses will want proof so you can get involved,” Mr. Biden said.

This maneuver—essentially the shifting of responsibility from the federal government—is consistent with Mr. Biden’s often attempting to convey a hopeful tone while blowing up the reality of an utterly divided nation.

The disinformation market in America is bigger than ever, despite Mr Trump. start the program resulted in full vaccination. 164 million AmericansHe spearheaded the accusation of discrediting the same program during the Biden administration.

But it wasn’t Mr Trump and the Republicans who ran to end the pandemic last year – it was Mr Biden and the Democrats, whose election successfully held a referendum on managing the one-century global public health crisis.

Now, just weeks after that celebrated great progress Biden is facing a new wave against the pandemic. And it probably won’t be long before Republicans, who are doing everything they can to resist measures to combat it, start blaming the president for failing to get the country out of the crisis he’s committed to solving.

“VERY EXCITED. Marathon County Board member Ka Lo wrote a series of joyful text messages on Thursday. “SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!”

We’ll see how much Ms. Lee’s victory will support local efforts to get Hmong recognition in Wisconsin. Both Marathon County and Wausau City Council rejected “Community for All” resolutions. Popularization of “Community for All” courtyard signs and yet another effort to pass the measure through the county board.

NS next vote of the district board of directors It is scheduled for August 12.


Sometimes even presidents get a little smack on the chin.


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