The Wall Street Journal Editorialized:
Mr. Biden had no plan to deal with the large numbers of vaccine holdouts, other than to deride them. He missed his goal of getting 70% of adults vaccinated by July 4 but proclaimed victory nonetheless.
It sounds like a crazy strategy, but it seems to work in politics: Oppose government efforts to address a problem, and then condemn the administration for failing to overcome your opposition.
Who are those refusers? There is a spattering of people on the wholistic naturopathic-medicine left and some Black Americans skeptical about the White medical establishment. But, overwhelmingly, vaccination refusers are people who consume Murdoch news. Fox News hosts and guests frame vaccinations as government tyranny and questionable science. They condemn the CDC and Anthony Fauci. They cheer athletes who refuse vaccinations and who get COVID advice from Joe Rogan. They praise GOP governors who stop businesses like Disney from requiring vaccinations for cruise ship passengers.
Biden's critics are correct: He did indeed fail to overcome the vaccination messages sent out by Fox and Trump. Those refusers are hospitalized and dying at a ten-to-one disproportion to the vaccinated. Someone must be blamed. Blame Biden.
Something similar is in the works for December. Watch for it. If the U.S. fails to raise the debt limit, the country will default on its debt, creating economic catastrophe. Money market funds will "break the buck" or freeze. What Americans understand to be "money" is in fact the debt we owe one another resting on a foundation of U.S. Treasury securities that mature and roll over. Republicans in congress are adamant that they will vote as a block to oppose raising the debt limit. It is "Biden's economy" and therefore Biden's failure if he fails to overcome GOP sabotage.
Surely the blatant hypocrisy of blaming Biden for a mess openly planned by his opponents undermines this strategy. Right? No. Voters are presumably smarter than gorillas, but maybe not.
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| Killed by a rival male |
The primary duty of a male silverback gorilla is to protect his harem of several females and their children. Frustrated bachelor males jealously watch from a distance. Sometimes a bachelor charges into the group, grabs an infant from a mother's arms, kills it, then runs off. The mother grieves, and then, incredibly enough, sometimes leaves the harem to join that bachelor, the murderer of her infant. Why? Because the murderer just proved that the previous silverback harem-owner could not protect her infants from murderous bachelors. She joins the guy strong enough to kill babies, including hers.
That is the GOP message. If Biden is unable to overcome the vaccine hesitancy of people who listen to Trump and Fox, and if Biden is unable to stop Republicans from sabotaging the economy by creating a debt crisis, then Biden is too weak to govern.
The message to voters: Since Biden can't stop us, it is better to make peace with the saboteurs.
13 comments:
So do we wish to be governed by a group of humans or a group of gorillas? Does it really just boil down to that?
When President Obama was in office, Trump tweeted, “Leadership: Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.”
Republicans seized on that notion to blame Obama for their refusal to do anything, then suspended it for Trump’s term in office (otherwise, by his own definition, he’d be responsible for his inept response to the pandemic and our subsequent economic collapse) and now that he’s out, it’s back in vogue.
So, it’s Biden’s fault that Republicans have spread disinformation about COVID-19, encouraging hordes of people to refuse the vaccine, spread disease and prolong the pandemic. They’ve degenerated from the Party of No to the Party of Death.
Trump was ineffective, except at “owning the libs.” Voters narrowly rejected him in 2020.
Biden has been ineffective so far, and much worse than that in his entirely incompetent and dishonorable withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Americans want effective leadership. They will continue to vote against failure. The presidency will switch back and forth until an effective leader emerges. Think of it as a form of Darwinian natural selection.
Biden, - failure? I think not! Several bills have just passed that will benefit the American people and not just the rich. He accepted compromise and got several Republicans to vote for it. Biden is respected around the world and has brought respect back for our country. Biden just needs to get better branding about his successes.
I also disagree that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was dishonorable. A twenty year war had to come to a close, now. Most US supporters were evacuated. The Taliban took over, yes, and it is up to the Afghans to decide if that is acceptable. Not us.
I do hope that we can stop accepting the Darwinian selection concepts mentioned above by other writers. We are really more like Bonobos. I hope that more of us are compassionate than are bullies.
Diane,
Biden’s withdrawal left behind thousands of Afghanis who had worked with our military. We owed it to them to get them and their families out of there before we left. We abandoned them to the Taliban, who are seizing their homes, beating them mercilessly, and killing them. Abandoning allies in this manner is the very definition of “dishonorable.”
Biden’s failure is in leadership. The bills that passed are acts of the legislature, not the presidency. Has Biden made any speeches that significantly changed the mood of the nation? Has he led us to a new understanding of our situation or our relationship to each other? Obviously not.
You can hope all you want that we are “more like Bonobos,” but history does not support that hope. Bonobos would presumably not have perpetrated The Holocaust or the Chinese Cultural Revolution, just to name two. Idealism untempered by pragmatism has gotten millions of people killed.
You do believe in Darwin’s theories, I hope. Science, you know…
Disney. BBB has NOT passed. Sure the House bill has passed, but there's still one more gate.
As passed by the House, it's unlikely that the Senate will pass it. It will need several changes, so... Biden should not celebrate yet.
I hear very little from the administration about it being approved by the Senate.
Recall that old adage, "don't count your chickens before they've hatched!"
Sorry, Disney should be Diane... Doing Disney planning today!
At least my spelling autocorrect has the right disposition!
M2---
Diane was talking about the infrastructure bill, opposed by most Republicans in spite of how badly we needed it because it would give Biden a victory.
Mike,
Yes, I understand why/how the infrastructure bill passed, and I expected it to pass despite the opposition.
Much of the opposition was to deny Biden a victory.
Don't forget that there were quite a few Democrats who voted against it too.
M2-
There were all of six in the House. I'm not sure that qualifies as "quite a few."
I'll accept the challenge. Just remember, Google is a friend:
https://www.yourdictionary.com/quite-a-few
6, out of 221, or .0271 % does not equate to quite a few, no matter what the internet says.
Edc,
I know you mean well, but math is an important life skill.
I know you meant 2.7%, but unfortunately, that's not what you typed.
I'll stick to my "quite a few" comment.
Have a happy holiday for the rest of your weekend. 😉
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