Everybody goes into the ring with a plan, until you get punched in the mouth Boxer Mike Tyson
At long last, the coronavirus crisis is starting to show cracks in the GOP. Not so much among the Washington GOP caucus, those pathetic slobs are still following Trump around like the guy with the wheeled garbage can, broom, and shovel behind the elephant at the circus parade. But the cracks are starting to appear at the state level. And since there are no Presidential candidates on the ballot in 2022, the states are where the action is going to be.
It started a couple of weeks ago, in ruby red Alabama of all places. Alabama has spent the last couple of months leapfrogging with Mississippi and Louisiana for the bottom feeder nationally in terms of population vaccinations. At an appearance, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey was asked what she could do to slow the surge of Covid in her state. At which point the Governor, obviously pissed and feisty, promptly lost her shit;
I don’t know, you tell me! I’ve done everything I can. I’m vaccinated, and I’ve pushed vaccinations! Lots of people are vaccinated, and they’re not causing the problem! It’s the non vaccinated people who are creating the problem. To which the reporter followed up, asking what she can do to reach out to those people, to which Ivey replied, I can’t do anything. I’ve pointed out the facts, and I’ve made recommendations, but I can’t make peoples choices for them. And right now they’re making bad personal choices.
Imagine that? A sitting GOP Governor in a deep red state actually blaming a bunch of flaming muckbills for fucking everybody else’s shit up. But it turns out that it wasn’t just Ivey ready to blow a gasket. It happened in another deep red state yesterday and today. Arkansas GOP Governor Asa Hutchinson, who is not running for reelection in 2022 is nonetheless holding a series of Covid-19 education town halls across the state. He held one last night. And he tried to do a little simple educating. Look, we all need to agree that Covid is real, and the Delta variant is even worse, and our residents are being sickened, admitted into hospitals, and dying. Which almost got him booed off of the stage. And the public comment portion unleashed a fury of QAnon nonsense that must have had the Governor reaching for a bottle of Jack the minute he got back into his limo.
But Hutchinson was undeterred. At a press conference today, he carefully explained that when he signed the law banning mask mandates, cases were low, and Covid seemed on the wane. Now everything has changed. And Hutchinson sincerely regrets signing the bill in the first place, especially with the return to school on the immediate horizon.
This had to happen. In the first, vicious round of Covid last year, red and blue states tended to share the load, with blue states higher due to population density, allowing GOP Governors to say they were holding the main. But then the vaccines came out. And residents of blue states lined up to take their jabs, while the residents of red states largely went back to reruns of Duck Dynasty. And after the lull, the Delta variant is wreaking havoc on GOP states, especially south and southwest states, while northern blue states have the surges under control. Worse yet, even in GOP states, older residents lined up to get their shots, so the new victims are younger, and whiter.
And now the floodgates are opening. Every day on the media, you are seeing parents of southern, mostly young Covid victims, who bought into the big lie, telling anybody who will listen to get the goddamn vaccine. Also, spouses grieving their loss, begging people to get the vaccine, this is no hoax. And it’s only going to get worse, since, even if people flock to get their vaccines, there’s a 45 day lag to full coverage.
It’s a simple fact. Mothing spreads faster than a wildfire. Other than bad news. The Villages is the most reliable GOP stronghold in the state of Florida. And it’s reporting a surge in Covid cases. And The Villages is a retirement community, the highest risk population for Covid. And a retirement community, even one larger than some small states, are close communities. They know each other, and word gets around about things like Covid deaths.
All over GOP dominated, mostly southern states are being ravaged by the Delta variant. And all they have to do is to look around to realize that they’re all by their lonesome. The House control in 2022 is going to depend on a couple of handfuls of swing GOP suburban districts. Considering the fact that in most GOP controlled states, infection rates are rising for children who do not yet qualify for vaccination, I will close this article with a warning to the GOP from Wednesday Addams, Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
You’re right of course about a reckoning with the voters in red states coming. What keeps me up at night worrying about 2022 and beyond is this: The ruthless pursuit of vicious new voter suppression laws around the country, especially in the too many states where both the legislature and the Governor’s mansion are in GOP hands. Worse, they aren’t (in those states) leaving it with voter suppression. They are hard at work passing laws that will allow GOP legislators to go in after the fact and effectively change the winners/losers of elections! Not just overruling County election officials but even state office holders!
The GOP is going openly Fascist. They were helpless to do what they wanted with the 2020 general election so they are going about making sure that next time if they don’t like who won at the ballot box THEY can pick the winners instead of the voters!
If you thought 2000 (FL) and the rash of lawsuits in multiple states for 2020 were clusterfucks you ain’t seen nothing yet.
I fear our only hope is sweeping new federal voting rights legislation. The Constitution grants the power to the federal government to set the rules for federal elections. If, while Democrats (however narrowly) still control the Legislative and Executive Branches we don’t do even more than the prior Voting Right Act (and updated versions) did then it won’t matter how many people die or where. Or how badly Republicans get their asses kicked in race after race. If Fascist Republicans refuse to accept the clear will of the voters and there is every indication they plan to do exactly that then we are fucked.
I have two grown wonderful daughters, both vaccinated, although my oldest just spent 2wks sick again with the variant. She’s well. However, I’m involved with a 5yr old as a surrogate father figure. It’s beyond my imagination that these morons are putting her at risk along with their own children. Of course every despot demands the sacrifice of children. Hitler sent 10yr olds to meet the Russians entering berlin. Mao had God knows how many female children killed. There are many examples. I wonder what they will do when it happens in their unvaccinated states.
To be accurate, Mao did not actually “have” (whatever that means) any female children killed. Parents themselves sometimes chose to do that (the vast majority kept their female infants) during the one-child policy. By the 1990s, 26 males per 1,000 live births died before the age of one – and 33 females. These were deaths from all causes, and surely some of the excess 7 females per thousand births is due to infanticide. Overzealous local party officials sometimes forced abortion of a second pregnancy regardless of the gender of the fetus.
Thanks for the nitpicking details. U think the families of China had a choice? Go back to law school. If u look past the trees, the forest is there. Mao ran the deal so to suggest otherwise is educated stupidity. Since the insurrection is led by one political party, half of which, are attorneys. So much for what law school teaches.
Not nitpicking. We should be accurate. There is plenty of bad stuff about Mao, but this isn’t one of them. Details are the difference between accuracy and propaganda.
Half of Democratic leadership are also attorneys, but the vast majority of the members of either political party are not attorneys.
Denis nailed it: :They are hard at work passing laws that will allow GOP legislators to go in after the fact and effectively change the winners/losers of elections! Not just overruling County election officials but even state office holders!”
The MSM keeps talking about voter suppression. That’s only HALF the story. The WRONG half!!!
When oh when will they get fucking clue?!?
What are the methods needed to fight this truly scary stuff that these fascists are doing? Right out in the open.
For 40 long years I’ve heard about “the ascendant Republicans.” No longer. The Delta variant is the Mike Tyson to meet the Republicans trying to enter office.
unfortunately the lowest vaccination rates in Texas are African Americans and Hispanics. The group with the highest vaccination rates are Asian Americans.
hutchinson saying “we all need to agree that Covid is real” is a laugh riot. The standard spiel from the G.Q.P. for…hell since this damn thing began was that it was a hoax. Reap what ye sow Asa.