Republicans Will Pay a High Price for Making Mask Wearing a Political Issue

Even as a group of parents were leaving a school board meeting in Franklin, Tennessee, muttering threats against the medical professionals who showed up and told them what they didn't want to hear, many of their neighbors were lining up, rolling up their sleeves and getting vaccinated.  Though some people are clearly still living in LaLa Land, the severity of the Delta variant is reaching into homes and families and hitting hard, especially in parts of the country where the vaccination rate was low.  

In fact, seven people died at the hospital in Williamson County, where Franklin is located, not very far from the school where the meeting was held on that same day, a hospital where local media reports indicate there are no more available beds in the ICU and no additional ventilators are available.  It appears that mask wearing and getting vaccinated can be driven by the infection and death rate. People who die of COVID have relatives and friends who mourn their death.  And after watching their friends and family members die a miserable death, they are getting the vaccination.  At least, many of them are.  The intelligent ones are.

Vaccination rates are now soaring in places where the Delta variant is also soaring. Well, that's a good thing, I suppose.  But it's too late for those who are already dead, especially those who have died since the vaccines became available.  We are at a point where everyone in the country could have had a vaccination by now except for children under 12.  It's painful to watch family members of these people, some of whom have had a chance to express regret for not getting the vaccine before they died, blame themselves for not insisting, for being a source of bad advice based on bad information, or simply grieve because someone who was perfectly healthy a few weeks ago is now gone.  

The long term effects of this aspect of the pandemic won't go away.  Once someone dies from COVID-19, their memory remains with their family members and friends.  If the preventative measures put in place to fight the pandemic have been turned into some kind of test of political preference or loyalty, the political party that opposed them is not going to be perceived in a positive way.  We are already seeing parents who have lost their children vent their grief on social media, and they're not happy with Republicans who seem insensitive and tone deaf to their grief and loss.  I'm watching this develop on social media and while my observation may be anecdotal, the anger and frustration is building and growing, and is increasingly aimed at Republican politicians who are openly opposed to any measures taken without their approval to stop the spread of COVID.  

Is the unnecessary, sudden death of a parent, sibling, grandparent or best friend enough to change your mind about a politician who is trying to use the virus that killed them as a political launching pad?  

It would seem so.  

I live in one of those "liberal" cities up north (think upper Midwest) where there hasn't been a whole lot of griping among the population about wearing masks, social distancing, taking precautions and where the vaccination rate runs upwards of 70% in some areas and averages about 60% overall.  Our local and state officials worked hard, followed sound science in their decision making process, communicated daily, and didn't let a little bit of conservative shrieking and whining bother them.  As a result, our per capita rates of infection, hospitalization and death are far lower than two thirds of those in the major cities in the country.  And during this current surge, which has shown up here as well, our numbers are a fraction of what they are in hot spots like Arkansas, Texas and Florida.  The masks were out before the governor ever announced a new mandate.  

This isn't about politics, but it has been made into it by Republicans, mostly governors who are going to run for President.  They are appealing to their base and jockeying for position, and it is costing people their lives because they aren't fulfilling their duty and obligation to protect their citizens.  They're not just resisting putting mask mandates in place, they are actually interfering with school districts whose leaders and employees are the ones who have to walk into the classrooms each day, along with students whose parents are going to hold the school officials accountable if anything happens to their children that could have been prevented.  

And perhaps, they might hold a few governors and state legislators accountable, too.