It’s tempting to assume that the Democrats’ mask fetish is 100% about power and, to a large degree, Save Jerseyans, that certainly was at the root of it. Statists are predatory by nature. Recognizing no limits on their own right to rule, they saw Covid-19 as an opportunity to remake society in their own image.
The original motive doesn’t adequarely explain why Democrats haven’t given up on masks and some of the other lingering mandates and “guidance.” They now risk LOSING power because of masks. The CDC is hinting at changes coming, but the federal government is clinging to Covid-era ideas that a majority of states – including “blue” ones like New Jersey – are beginning to abandon all while the president’s poll numbers are still dropping.
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The simple answer: they’re trapped.
Like spiders snagged in a web of their own creation.
First and foremost, a plurality of Americans may be done with masks but as many as two-thirds of Democrats still think it’s too soon to drop mandates. The Democrat base is obsessed with the damn things! Masking is rapidly becoming a political liability, but it’s not as simple as saying “hey guys, all of that stuff we said about masks being the epitome of virtue and real science is over now.” Why? Because Covid “compliance” became a part of the Democrats’ secular religion – along with abortion, the existence of 10,000 genders, etc. – during the pandemic. Fauci is a secular saint. Masking is a secular sacrament. Asking Democrats to unmask is akin to asking a devout Catholic to start eating meat on Fridays in Lent.
Democrats now must choose whether to continue feeding the beast that is the majority of their base OR take what just happened in San Fran to heart, move towards the center and risk a base turnout problem in a midterm cycle. Team Biden seems worried, don’t you think?
The other problem may nevertheless prove the larger obstacle in the short term because it’s an immediate practical challenge:
What else do Democrats have to run on in 2022?
In 2006, the Iraq War galvanized Democrats. In 2010, Obamacare enthused GOP voters.
This time around, EVERY major issue – from the pandemic response and the economy to education (!) and foreign policy AND crime – are all tilting in the Republicans’ favor. It’s historic. With Trump absent from the ballot in 2022, Democrats are boxed-in defending the only other thing that worked for them in 2020: pandemic virtue-signaling.
Good luck!
So in a very real way, folks, Leftist leaders’ mask-wearing on television at this late stage of the game is suddenly no longer a matter of pure choice. They’re trapped behind them. It’s poetic, don’t you think?
