Just two months ago, President Joe Biden announced that the CDC was recommending that vaccinated Americans would no longer need to wear masks to mitigate the spread of the virus. He took this as some sort of personal achievement and victory of his fledgling administration.
This week, his same CDC announced a reversal of this policy. Since ending the mask policy was touted as a presidential achievement, was the announced regression to mask protocols met with an acknowledgment of the president's failures?
Of course, not. He isn't to blame. You are.
Back in May, when Biden did a victory lap for Donald Trump's vaccine success, he implored Americans to be kind and respectful to one another.
"Be patient with one another," Biden said. "You know, some may say, 'I just feel more comfortable continuing to wear a mask.' They may feel that way. So if you're someone with a mask — you see them, please treat them with kindness and respect," he went on to semi-coherently babble.
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This week, when asked about Americans who still had not gotten vaccinated, Biden said, "if you're not vaccinated, you're not nearly as smart as I thought you were."
So, in just two months, we've gone from "treat people wearing masks with kindness and respect" to unvaccinated people are stupid.
Biden's not the only angry, near-octogenarian Democrat in Washington calling their fellow Americans stupid.
On the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had strong words for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
The Speaker was asked about McCarthy's statement that the mandate was not based on science. "He's such a moron," Pelosi said.
A passive observer of these two leaders calling the unvaccinated and mask skeptics stupid morons might reach the conclusion that being "patient" and "respectful" was not really their main priority.
Further, you'd also properly conclude that by forcing vaccinated individuals to mask up again, Biden's main goal wasn't to get more of the unvaccinated in the fold.
Recent reports say that 99 percent of covid hospitalizations are of the unvaccinated. And even though some vaccinated individuals could still contract the virus, their symptoms are less severe, if not mild, and their risk of serious health degradation is practically nonexistent.
This is the greatest argument for getting people vaccinated, and if the goal of this administration is to convert skeptics of the efficacy of Trump's vaccine, that's exactly what they'd be touting at every possible opportunity.
Instead, they are inflicting punishments and restrictions on the very people who have done what the administration has been cajoling them to do. The message used to be "Get Vaxxed, Lose the Mask." Now, the very people who heard that message and got vaxxed are being ordered to get back in the mask. How does this convert the unvaccinated? It doesn't.
If you think their goal is to get more people vaccinated, you'd be pretty confused over this new messaging.
But what if that isn't their goal? What if their goal is to divide Americans even further?
If you're vaccinated, and now you're told you have to get back in the mask and your children have to wear masks when they go back to school, you're probably pissed. I know I am.
And the cynical Democratic leadership is hoping you'll be pissed not at them for their bungled vaccine roll-out but at your fellow Americans who have chosen differently than you for their own, personal, private reasons.
"As Covid cases surge, unvaccinated Americans trigger scorn, resentment from many vaccinated people," reads the NBC News headline.
Yup, that's the plan. And, why not? Democrats find their political power in dividing us into various, warring factions. They divide us by race, and by religion, and by sexual identity, and by wealth, just to name a few. Now, they've found a new trick. They want to divide us by vaccination status.
They want us angry at each other. It's the only explanation.
