GOP Cowards Are the Real Problem
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/opinion/republicans-vaccines.html
Back in July, Kay Ivey, governor of Alabama, had some strong and sensible things to say about Covid-19 vaccines. I want folks to get vaccinated, she declared. Thats the cure. That prevents everything. She went on to say that the unvaccinated are letting us down.
Three months later Ivey directed state agencies not to cooperate with federal Covid-19 vaccination mandates.
Iveys swift journey from common sense and respect for science to destructive partisan nonsense nonsense that is killing tens of thousands of Americans wasnt unique. On the contrary, it was a recapitulation of the journey the whole Republican Party has taken on issue after issue, from tax cuts to the Big Lie about the 2020 election.
When we talk about the G.O.P.s moral descent, we tend to focus on the obvious extremists, like the conspiracy theorists who claim that climate change is a hoax and Jan. 6 was a false flag operation. But the crazies wouldnt be driving the Republican agenda so completely if it werent for the cowards, Republicans who clearly know better but reliably swallow their misgivings and go along with the party line. And at this point crazies and cowards essentially make up the partys entire elected wing.
I suspect ultimately there are more cowards than crazies in the GOP electeds.