Stop and Smell the Sanity on the Sunday Political Open Thread

[Z is for Zangie]

Good Morning! Have a very sane and super Sunday!

[Randi]

Try as I might, I don’t understand the GOPs anti vaccine and anti mask policies
Why did they turn a public health issue into a political issue?

[Mike]

Try as I might, I don’t understand the GOPs anti vaccine and anti mask policies
Why did they turn a public health issue into a political issue?

When a party has essentially lost all the big issues, it needs something. And it actually makes sense from within the viewpoint of so many millions of conservatives, almost all of whom are religious.

One fundamental tenet of American Christendom is the belief that the “end times” are right around the corner, that they could be in play right now. The result, of course, is that Jesus returns and rules the earth for a thousand years. These folks therefore have no fears of apocalypse. Of plagues, of environmental catastrophe, of nuclear war. They truly believe some hippie spiritualist that supposedly lived 2000 years ago will come along and magically fix everything! So not only do they not fear these things - they welcome these things, and will do everything within their power to bring those events to fruition.

They also believe in “god’s will” where this virus is concerned, and believe that the virus culling the weak is a GOOD thing.

Thus they, in the face of all science and reason, resist vaccines and masks.

[Z is for Zangie]

Try as I might, I don’t understand the GOPs anti vaccine and anti mask policies
Why did they turn a public health issue into a political issue?

Because it works?

[Roam85]

Try as I might, I don’t understand the GOPs anti vaccine and anti mask policies
Why did they turn a public health issue into a political issue?

To tangent to illustrate the point:

On a gaming forum, people were wondering 'who cares what influencers have to say? why claim they represent a community?', and one of the most cohesive arguments against was "Well, if they keep getting viewers, they know they are keeping their content to things to what the community is actually talking about, usually by checking forums and sites themselves, to keep the community interested". So while the influencers may be the wrong term to assume they influence the community, it might be the right term to have an idea of where the pulse of the community is at.

It may not be intelligent to turn a public health issue into a political one.... but if your political base insists on it, you don't have a choice if you wish to keep your position of influence.

[GuideToACrazyWorld]

Try as I might, I don’t understand the GOPs anti vaccine and anti mask policies
Why did they turn a public health issue into a political issue?

It was political from the start. The second it hit it was welded as a weapon ageist Trump. This included gross over exaggerations of the situation and a myopic focus on Covid as if it were a singular isolated issue. Of course Trump did what he does and pretended like the issue was made up. It's the only move he's got, he's not politically astute enough for anything more complex. The rest of the party followed his lead. I think the better question is why is the GOP so enamored with Trump? The reality is because he won. That's it. The GOP doesn't care about anything but not being the DNC.

It's easy to try and blame the other, but the reality is this is the state of our political system. If one side was being honest tell me why registered Democrats regularly over estimate the risk of serious illness while registered Republicans regularly over estimate it. This has been consistent throughout the pandemic.