Why Republicans suddenly seem to be taking COVID seriously

[Nevilledog]

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Amanda Marcotte
@AmandaMarcotte
Reports that the GOP is "shifting" to a more pro-vaccine message are highly exaggerated. It's just more Republican manipulation of the press, meant to quell criticism while continuing a strategy of sabotaging Biden by making their own voters sick.

Why Republicans suddenly seem to be taking COVID seriously
Vaccine advocacy from Hannity and McConnell gets the media off Republicans' backs, but won't shift public sentiment
salon.com
10:33 AM · Jul 21, 2021

https://www.salon.com/2021/07/21/why-republicans-suddenly-seem-to-be-taking-covid-seriously/

Amid a rising media furor over the steady stream of vaccine disparagement from GOP politicians and Fox News talking heads, a number of prominent Republicans spoke up in favor of vaccines early this week.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters, "shots need to get in everybody's arm as rapidly as possible" and asked that people "ignore all of these other voices that are giving demonstrably bad advice." House Minority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, got the vaccine after months of delay and then publicly said, "there shouldn't be any hesitancy over whether or not it's safe and effective." And Fox News host Sean Hannity, in a widely shared video, declared, it "absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated." This was treated in the press as an unequivocal endorsement, even though the use of the word "many" was clearly meant to let the Fox News viewers feel like he's talking about other people getting vaccinated.

Is this an exciting pivot among the GOP elites? Are they abandoning the sociopathic strategy of sabotaging President Joe Biden's anti-pandemic plan by encouraging their own followers to get sick? Are the millions of Republicans who keep telling pollsters they will never get that Democrat shot going to change their minds now?

Ha ha ha, no.

All this shows is that GOP politicians and pundits still know how to manipulate the mainstream press's endless desire to believe the Republicans aren't really as bad as the #resistance tweeters are saying. But while clips of prominent Republicans saying pro-vaccine stuff might be enough to get the press off their backs — or keep Biden from accusing them of "killing people," as he did (correctly) to Facebook — it won't be enough to actually get vaccine-hostile Republican voters to change their minds. Indeed, this should be understood more as a P.R. move to quell press criticism than a sincere effort to get reluctant people to get vaccinated.

*snip*

[lagomorph777]

1. "Sabotaging Biden by making their own voters sick."

That seems to be their plan. Seriously, something seems to have caused massive brain damage to all members of the Reptilian Party.

[Walleye]

2. Sort of like trump telling the insurrectionist to be peaceful. His people know that it's bullshit

[Firestorm49]

3. The idiots have finally come to realize two things.

1 The GOP base is shrinking
2 Their diminishing base of unvaccinated idiots are the ones dying in larger numbers, no thanks to Republican leadership and a tainted media.

[RussBLib]

4. Classic

"GOP politicians and pundits still know how to manipulate the mainstream press's endless desire to believe the Republicans aren't really as bad as the #resistance tweeters are saying."

Every now and then you uncover some truth.

[empedocles]

5. Some 'con voters and media won't be readily fooled, imo.

[TheFarseer]

6. My first thought was

They don’t want the stock market to tank but plausible deniability is probably a much bigger reason.

[Johonny]

7. I think there is some truth to that

I really think they believed the herd immunity thing and that most Americans got infected in the winter and there was little risk of a fifth wave so their strategy had no draw backs. Now it's terrible optics and more importantly, liberal voters are going to be alive come mid-terms and democratic states will likely have growing economies while their voters are going to suffer horribly and red states economies could be in the crapper.

[Sneederbunk]

8. Need as many Repuke voters as they can get

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Don't cha know? Biden and the Deep State must have gotten to them with some kind of blackmail!