Unvaccinated people are getting sick and dying. OK.
They made their choice.
COVID may help Democrats get comfortable with negative consequences for foolish behaviors. I haven't heard enough of that from Democrats.
Democratic thought leaders represent the ideas and moral sensibilities of highly-educated upper-middle class professionals. There is diversity of race and gender among this group but there is very little diversity of thought. Activists, journalists, pundits, and people in and out of government are part of the same milieu, educated in similar places, mostly living in urban places.
Black voters in South Carolina reminded Democrats that this wasn't where the votes were. It was an electoral wake-up call, but the mindset did not change. The Democratic primary simply chose the least articulate spokesman for that mindset, Joe Biden. The public murder of George Floyd gave a visual image to the idea.
Biden is president but he is not the Democratic thought leader. There isn't one. No Democrat currently voices the ideas needed to bring Democratic messaging back in touch with voters. The educated middle class that increasingly makes up the Democratic electorate is comfortable with ambition and personal striving, both for themselves and their children. They are OK with rigor and accountability. They believe in merit and consequences. Those voters remember--or imagine--that they could have gotten drunk or stoned before college or licensing exams but didn't. They credit this with why they now have a job with benefits. When the alarm clock goes off in the morning, they get up and go to work. They want to be rewarded for that.
COVID vaccinations can help fix Democratic thinking and messaging. Unvaccinated people are spreading the disease, crowding out patients from hospitals, and raising insurance costs. There is reason for vaccinated Democrats to be frustrated with them. But there is nature's compensation. We are watching rough justice. Nature has consequences for people who choose to show the middle finger to Biden and Dr. Fauci. Fly the "Let's go Brandon" flag right into the hospital and morgue.Democrats can talk about individual responsibility, and should. Americans will accept Democratic efforts to remediate the effects of prejudices if Democrats also share a belief in personal responsibility. Jessie Jackson did it. He spoke of hard-working people setting their alarms to take the early morning bus to work. They were his heroes. Every person of every identity knows that some people work harder than others and make better choices than others. They make those choices as individuals, not as a group. It isn't tolerating racism to say this. It is respecting people.
Who believes this? A majority of Americans whose votes Democrats need if they want to win elections.
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All people are created equal. To me, this means that all should have access to such basic necessities as clean air, clean water, education and healthcare. The Democratic Party’s appeal is that it tends to be more supportive of that.
And then we have the peaceful transfer of power, something Republicans obviously consider passe. If they had any more claim to personal responsibility than Democrats, Trump would be in jail rather than their party leader.
What is so disheartening to me about this blog is that it continually stresses - and rightly so - that our polity’s future is not decided by thoughts, but rather by primordial instinct. And that the only way for thoughtful people to convince significant enough numbers of our human cohort to vote with us is through either emotional appeals or obfuscation. I include the leaders of the Republican Party in the group I call “thoughtful people.” They are honestly correct that their policies, judicial nominations and the like will ensure their continued economic success, social status and political control. That their policies may lead to the extinction of our species doesn’t seem to be very important to them. They obfuscate using red herring issues like patriotism, race baiting and abortion to hide their agenda. They frighten the dinosaur brains of their followers by obsessing on things like “the war on Christmas.” Again, another good night’s sleep and potential for a happy day ruined by Peter Sage.
"...diversity of thought..."
What!?
The only diversity is between lies and truth, reality and delusion.
Case in point: The. Big. Lie. This repulsive tactic is a the forefront of a desperate, despicable campaign to sow doubt in our fundamental institutions, for power and, even worse, financial gain. Let's stop pretending there is some "common ground" and Republicans can be rehabilitated. There is zero evidence of this.
Some might be uncomfortable with this fundamental fact, but it's true nonetheless.
Democrats are uniquely creative in screwing up political situations that might work to their advantage.
Peter’s “let the idiots die“ approach might work to add a personal responsibility component to the Democrats’ message. But it turns out that in New York City blacks have some of the lowest vaccination rates. “Let the black idiots die“ just won’t work for the Democrats.
The Democrats’ brilliant solution? Prioritize blacks and other minorities for treatment with anti-Covid monoclonal antibodies, which are currently in short supply. You heard that right. Discriminate against white people when providing lifesaving treatment.
Could the Democrats possibly have come up with a better way to foment a race war?
I keep hoping that the toxic stupidity of wokeness will rise to a level that causes its decisive rejection by the American people. Maybe this year, he said, with naïve optimism…
The Omicron COVID variant has evaded the immune protection of the vaccines, is spreading like wildfire among both vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans.
This article from NPR reports research that shows "Scientists who traced this superspreader event concluded it was evidence that omicron was "highly transmissible" among fully vaccinated adults."
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/12/31/1067702355/omicron-is-spreading-like-wildfire-scientists-are-trying-to-figure-out-why
Dr. Fauci just said that for all variants, 10% to 30% of the people who catch it, even if they have a mild case, go on to suffer from Long COVID. The people who have Long COVID say it is truly awful. There is evidence that people who are vaccinated can still get Long COVID.
The leaders of the country have decided that COVID is just like the flu or a cold now, it is no big deal to let the virus sweep through the American population. Everyone should keep going to work, kids should go to school.
If millions more Americans, including children, are suffering from Long COVID in a few months, this is going to look like a very reckless path.
I'm triple vaxxed and still doing everything I possibly can to avoid catching COVID. I don't want it, even a mild case.
I'm triple vaxxed and still doing everything I possibly can to avoid catching COVID. I don't want it, even a mild case.
Me too!
Staying as safe as I can.
“The educated middle class that increasingly makes up the Democratic electorate is comfortable wit( ambition and personal striving, bot( for themselves and their children. They are OK with rigor and accountability. They believe in merit and consequences”.
Sadly for America, this is a (quite literally) dying segment of the Democratic electorate. Younger, hipper types on the Left who’ve made it AND deserve credit? They piously disavow credit, at least in public, and pretend it’s all happenstance and/ or undue privilege.
Ersatz “oppressed” folks, especially Latinos and Asians, retain educational, work and family ethics, and appreciate a society where that means material benefit. Leftist levelers flogging various class victimhood mentalities are why Dems lose Congress in 2022.
I agree with casting COVID self-protection measures as a metaphor or touchstone for personal accountability writ large. The reason Biden, or rather the doctrinaire leftists he’s beholden to, can’t or won’t seize upon that is COVID is far from the only such touchstone.
I watched Andy Beshear almost cry and maybe pray, a Democrat, trying to guide a poverty ridden state through a disaster. More Democratic leaders like him are needed ; he put his mask back on after speaking when those around him had none. The Mayor of the town prayed and wore no mask. Who worked in the candle factory that was blown to bits…blacks. The town seemed to be helping one another guided by a Democratic Governor who didn’t seem to be grandstanding but was side by side with the broken. He had deep roots in his community. Maybe Pres material someday , someone who can understand and talk to the red and the blue.
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