Amanda Marcotte, laying it on the line at Salon.com:
"As Greg Sargent of the Washington Post pointed out last week, 'After having gone to great lengths to impair our response to covid at best, and to actively sabotage it at worst, Republicans will claim the covid resurgence is only the fault of President Biden and Democrats.' While there are some people still telling themselves it's impossible that the same people who backed Trump would do something this slimy, it's been evident for some time now that Republicans are running the same playbook on Biden's efforts to end the pandemic that they did on Barack Obama's efforts to heal the country during his presidency: Sabotage the effort and pin the blame for the continued misery on the president and his party. [snip]
Perhaps the outrage over the vaccine mandate is real, but not because of 'freedom' or any of the other empty excuses Republicans are hiding behind. It's because Biden is messing with their 2022 midterm strategy. If this mandate works and brings COVID-19 under control, it blows up GOP plans to run on claims that Democrats 'failed' to end the pandemic. Never mind that it's Republicans who are actually to blame for discouraging vaccination. These folks are willing to kill thousands of Americans a week in a bid to get a political advantage over Biden, so they're not going to be constrained by the moral imperative to be honest." (our emphasis)
We've already seen the likes of Florida's thuggish and reckless Gov. Ron "One Glove" DeSantis blame the raging Delta variant in his state on President Biden, when DeSantis has done everything to sabotage the fight against the virus. Other reckless Republican governors are following the plan: no to vaccinations and masks and then blame President Biden for the virus' surge.
Marcotte notes further that Republican opposition to Biden's mandates runs counter not only to public opinion, but to their allies in the business community who want a return to "normal". For now, as long as their Trumpist cult remains motivated and angry, Republican political hacks' sabotage and lying will continue. But it may finally get their attention when their donors in the business community hold off on contributing to them as they fight a return to "normal." Time, and mounting cases of COVID, will tell.
