Pirate's Cove

Will they search for a new way to push Government control of citizens? The NY Times is Very Concerned

With Some Voters ‘Ready to Move On,’ Democrats Search for New Message on Virus

When the coronavirus pandemic first swept Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf closed stores and schools and ordered millions of citizens to stay home. Even four months into the crisis in 2020, all but “life-sustaining” businesses in much of the state were locked down.

Today, the virus is ravaging Pennsylvania again, like much of the country, with hospitalization numbers nearing or exceeding those during the worst months of the pandemic.

Yet Wolf, a Democrat whose party desperately wants to keep control of his seat in the midterm elections, has no intention of returning to the strict measures of two years ago. There are no plans for mask mandates or more virtual schooling. Pennsylvanians, the governor said, crave a return to normalcy.

Look at New Jersey, a deep blue state: there are no mask mandates, and the governor, who was just re-elected, barely, has no intention of re-instituting a state wide mask mandate. Gov. Cooper here in North Carolina was not quite as bad as many of his Democratic Party comrades, but, also has zero intention of putting in a mask mandate.

Around the country, Democratic elected officials who in the pandemic’s early phase shut down cities and states more aggressively than most Republicans did — and saw their popularity soar — are using a different playbook today. Despite the deadly wave fueled by the omicron variant, Democratic officials are largely skipping mask mandates and are fighting to keep schools open, sometimes in opposition to health care workers and their traditional allies in teachers’ unions.

Who did their popularity soar with? Hardcore progressives? They’re seeing that voters are done, that kids need to be in school. That people will blow off masking, because the science says that anything less than an N95 will only help about 10%.

The shift reflects a potential change in the nature of the threat now that millions of Americans are vaccinated and omicron appears to be causing less serious disease. But it is also a political pivot. Democrats are keenly aware that Americans — including even some of the party’s loyal liberal voters — have changed their attitudes about the virus and that it could be perilous to let Republicans brand the Democrats the party of lockdowns and mandates.

Locking the barn door after the peasants have already left.

“You’ll see more Democratic elected officials say that this is our forever now and we can’t live our lives sitting rocking in a corner,” said Brian Stryker, a partner at the polling firm ALG Research, whose work on Virginia’s elections last year indicated that school closures hurt Democrats. “We’ve just got to live with this virus.”

Which is what a lot of Republicans have been saying the whole time. A lot of us said “be careful, wash your hands, keep your distance”, and even “get the vaccine”, ones like me, but, don’t overdo it.

Today Biden’s overall approval, which has fallen into dangerous territory for any party in a midterm election year, is being kept down in part because of disappointment over his performance on coronavirus. Fewer than half of Americans approved of his handling of the pandemic in a CBS News/YouGov survey last week, down from 66% who approved in July.

In a lot of polls that approval is much lower, yet, Biden is still pushing for vaccine mandates. And sending N95s and test kits? Won’t really make a difference.

Now that vaccines have been proven effective, Americans have lower tolerance for restrictions, strategists and elected officials said. While schools are largely open in the United States, many families are still dealing with the fallout of two years of classroom disruptions, including loss of learning, mental health problems and millions of parents who were driven out of the workforce.

Problems not really seen much in Republican run states. But, see, this is all about the 2022 midterms, and protecting Democrats. Democrats want to pivot to seem more reasonable

“They will pay the price in the next election,” said Lou Barletta, a Republican candidate for governor in Pennsylvania who blames Democrats, rather than the virus, for damage to businesses and loss of learning. “Nobody’s going to forget businesses who couldn’t open again or people who lost their jobs. That doesn’t get erased from memory. Not to mention a year’s education was stolen away from our children.”

And you can bet they’ll pivot right back to their Progressivism (nice Fascism) right after the mid-terms.