Chapter 39: What political issues do you consider most important?
Originally written September 13, 2021
Before we get into this fiercely divisive topic, let’s take a listen to this classic song by Michigan punk band, Death. (Yes, even lower-case “death” is less polarizing than politics.)
I’m at a real risk of sounding like an old fart moaning about the good old days here, but I can remember, not that long ago, when politics didn’t seem like it was the most important thing in everyone’s life and the core defining aspect of your personality.
Like the old codger I am, I’ll put some of the blame on social media.
Beyond making me seem like an old crank, this also makes me look hypocritical, being that I’m pretty active on both Facebook and Twitter. [Update from 2024: I quit Twitter last year after Elon Musk retweeted an actual Nazi and actually agreed with him. I’m on Threads now, which isn’t as much fun as Twitter circa 2009. But there are far fewer Nazis than Twitter 2024.]
Perhaps reading Twitter while I drink my morning coffee has warped my worldview.
As the caffeine blows its metaphorical trumpet in my sleepy brain, I’ll look and Twitter at the start of the day and the online battle for the political soul of the nation already is raging.
Names have been called, accusations have been charged, idiotic things said by those from the Other Side have been pointed out, analyzed, blasted, ridiculed, and reposted incessantly.
The outrage keeps mounting, the choirs keep getting preached to, the virtues are signaled, the heroes properly cheered and the villains properly booed ..
God bless America!
Of course that’s just social media. In real life people usually don’t rip each other apart over political differences.
There is an old high school friend, Max, who I hadn’t seen since our last class reunion 10 years ago. We’re miles apart politically. In high school I always thought Max was a hippie pacifist and I was a teen-age Republican. But at some point he started veering to the right as I drifted leftward.
But I’ve gone out to breakfast with Max and his wife Connie a couple of times in recent months. We talk about old friends, high school daze, music, movies, food and other normal stuff. As old friends should and do.
The only time we talk politics ixzs to laugh at dumb-asses, right and left, who love to argue politics.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’ll answer the question. (I guess after interviewing so many politicians all those years as a reporter, I picked up their annoying habit of making speeches before answering the actual question.)
The most important political issue of the day is something that shouldn’t be a political issue at all: Getting vaccinated against COVID 19.
I remember the great feeling I had when I got my first COVID shot in mid-February this year. After so many months of lockdown and worry, I got a feeling of invincibility as soon as the needle broke my skin.
I felt even more that way when I got my second shot a month later. The COVID numbers were going down, the weather was getting noticeably nicer, more and more restrictions were being lifted. Trump was out of office. It truly seemed like the dark cloud that had enveloped the country for the past year was rapidly fading.
No longer would we have to hunker in our bunkers. (Take it, Dave Del Monte!)
Little did I know at the time that a stubborn core of morons would hold out and screw it all up. But sure enough, an unholy alliance of hardcore MAGA dolts and New-Age flakes would team up in enough numbers to allow the COVID-19 virus to mutate.
These idiots were aided by several cynical far-right governors and other Republican officials who are determined to fight vaccination mandates, and other COVID-prevention efforts.
Just a few days ago the Republican Party of New Mexico tweeted a meme that blasted President Biden in a number of areas. Most the bullet points were fairly typical GOP complaints: “Struggling economy,” “Massive inflation,” “Border crisis” etc . Exaggerated for sure, but fairly generic. But one item on the laundry list made me wince:
“Medical tyranny.”
That’s how the state Republican Party is trying to frame the issue.
Although the GOP leader of the state House of Representatives recently published an editorial commendably calling for everyone to get vaxed, the state party is railing against the “tyranny” of vaccination mandates.
I’m not sure how this started.
Perhaps President Trump, who at first was holding daily COVID press conferences, became jealous of Dr. Anthony Fauci because he was getting more respect from the media and the public.
It’s not hard to see why. Fauci stuck to the issue, while Trump frequently used those briefings to rail against his enemies and make outlandish statements (not to mention bringing up the possibility of in getting bleach to fight the virus.)
To his absolute credit, Trump’s Operation Warp Speed produced vaccines before the end of the year. (I’m to hear Trump declare, “A big, strong reporter, a tough guy, came to me with tears in his eyes, saying `Sir, I have to thank you…’ ”)
But by early November, when Pfizer announced that their vaccine was more than 90 percent effect, Trump was far more interested in overturning the election than getting people vaccinated.
His initial reaction was that Pfizer had conspired with Democrats to wait until after the election to make their big announcement. “The [U.S. Food & Drug Administration] and the Democrats didn’t want to have me get a Vaccine WIN, prior to the election, so instead it came out five days later — As I’ve said all along!” the defeated president tweeted.
Imagine if the leader of the free world at the time was not a bitter narcissist and instead was someone who would have had the grace to go on national TV and say, “My fellow Americans, the long national nightmare is over. It’s up to us to now come together and get every adult American vaccinated as soon as possible …” Then made public service announcements for TV, radio, the internet, etc.
Instead, Trump called for an investigation into the FDA.
Trump himself did get vaccinated, though he didn’t publicize that at first. And recently, at a MAGA rally in Alabama he briefly mentioned the vaccine and urged his supporters to get it — which was met with boos from some of the red-hat crowd. But that was just a small part of the speech, which consisted mostly of the ex-president’s usual insults and grievances.
I’m not blaming all Republicans. Several Republicans I know have gotten their shots.
And it’s not only MAGA types. As I said earlier, New Age airheads certainly have played a big part in promoting vaccination resistance.
And here in Santa Fe, this contingent is far more prevalent than hardcore Trumpanzis.
I wouldn’t worry so much about it. But both my grandkids are in Texas, where the governor is one of the worst crusaders against sensible COVID policies.
So I take this crap personally. [Another 2024 update: Both my kids and both my grandkids moved out of Texas last year.]
And though I believe President Biden’s recent vaccination mandates ultimately could turn the tide against COVID-19, the fact that such a large number of Americans actively embraces the stupidity depresses me.
I’ll give the last word to a doctor, Flint Mich. bluesman Doctor Ross! But remember, there is no vaccination against the deadly Boogie Disease!
The pandemic could and should have pulled us together, just as it could have happened as you wrote, Steve. Operation Warp Speed was the only good thing I can think of right now that the former president did. Why didn't he just inundate the air waves with how important it was for people to get it??? I read the Daily Kos newsletter most days during the pandemic, which had a daily feature based on a subreddit called "The Herman Cain Chronicles." Using posts from social media but with names and other identifying details redacted, it traced people's journeys from insisting the pandemic was a hoax, to getting a little sniffle, to spending outrageous amounts of money on ineffective treatments like ivermectin, to going to the hospital, to being intubated, to a family member setting up a GoFundMe to cover funeral expenses. SO EFFING SENSELESS. That evil man has so much blood on his hands.
It was indeed a dark time. A college friend was a doc in Enid, OKlahoma. He advocated for masks and self-quarantine. Most of his patients ignored this crucial advice, and he spent almost two years venting them and sending them to any open ER bed within two states. Many of them wept, as the vent tube went in, and told him they should have listened. As soon as the plague subsided, he retired. Neither of us could believe the Republican response to a major health crisis--science is the thief of freedom.