The Most Important Statistic of the Biden Presidency

[babylonsister]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-most-important-statistic-of-the-biden-presidency

Letter from Biden’s Washington
The Most Important Statistic of the Biden Presidency
One in five hundred Americans has died in the pandemic, and Republicans are actively rooting for the country to fail.
By Susan B. Glasser
September 16, 2021

snip//

The partisan split has also translated into a deadly divide in vaccination rates—a tragedy given that vaccines are, for now, the only real way out of this mess. And no wonder this divide persists. It is not an accident or an immutable fact of American political life; it’s a fire built and stoked by Trump and his supporters. Among the top stories on Fox News’ home page on Thursday, I could not find a single reference to the pandemic, and little sense that COVID even existed, beyond a link to a video headlined “Liberal host torched for labeling GOP ‘COVID-loving death cult’ in bizarre rant.” As I was writing this column, I received an e-mail from one Donald J. Trump. The subject was “Biden’s vaccine mandate.” “I totally OPPOSE this liberal overreach that requires Americans to be vaccinated,” Trump wrote. “The Left is working overtime to CONTROL you, Friend,” he warned. Biden, he added, “doesn’t care about you or your freedoms.”

As a matter of politics, of course, this is not necessarily a winning strategy for the Republicans. In California on Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom defeated a Republican effort to recall him by running a campaign painting the G.O.P. candidate as a Trump-loving extremist who would undo public-health measures to fight the pandemic. In Washington, Biden quickly released a statement proclaiming Newsom’s victory a vindication of his national policies. It was, the President said, “a resounding win for the approach that he and I share to beating the pandemic: strong vaccine requirements, strong steps to reopen schools safely, and strong plans to distribute real medicines—not fake treatments—to help those who get sick.” Even some conservatives have come around to the idea that, as Rich Lowry, of National Review, put it, “the stolen-election myth has become an albatross for the GOP.”

Then again, California is consistently among the most Democratic of Democratic states. Imagine Trump putting out a statement declaring a Republican victory in Alabama or Mississippi as evidence of a national trend. The tragic triumph of Trumpism is not that he has persuaded all Americans, or even a majority of Americans, to reject their way out of the pandemic; it’s that he has persuaded just enough of them to keep the disease wreaking havoc on the country.

The G.O.P.’s desire to see Biden fail has become a willingness to let the country fail. Nine months into Biden’s Presidency, the bottom line is that the Republican war on Biden’s legitimacy and the war on Biden’s COVID policies are now inextricably linked. The consequences of this are so hard to contemplate that we often do not do so: a politics so broken that it is now killing Americans on an industrial scale.

[samnsara]

1. i just love that man to bits!!

[Demovictory9]

2. Sad but true

[Dopers_Greed]

3. The GOP are traitors

Plain and simple

[hay rick]

5. Yup.

[peggysue2]

7. Yes!

And we need to start calling them out for what they are: unAmerican, seditionists, traitors.

They've labeled themselves by their own words and deeds.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. We are in a war of attrition, we must keep ourselves as insulated and as healthy as possible

They cannot be reached and only time will burn them to ground. Worry if their narcissistic rage spikes into social violence, or if they regain power, heaven forbid. Time is our greatest friend in this fight.

[NEOBuckeye]

6. The Republican Party Death Cult

Republicans are a menace to society and the No. 1 terrorist threat to this country.

Except that their terrorism is through ignorance and misinformation, and they wage these attacks on our country daily.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. Killing one's self to own the libs

[DownriverDem]

9. Not all of us

repubs are killing their own voters. So be it. Don't feel sorry for them at all.

[Evolve Dammit]

10. Sociopathy has tken over the GOP. Death Eaters.

[Lonestarblue]

11. How sick is a political strategy of killing Americans to make people believe Biden has failed!

Republicans have been on a downward spiral into crazy land for decades, but they are now full-scale lunatics.