Voters Are Done With COVID-19 and Pandemic-Powered Officials
Panicked Americans surrendered a lot of authority during the pandemic. Now they want their country back.
Politicians have been on a high over the last year-plus, wielding extraordinary power with the approval of voters fearful of viral infection. Democrats, in particular, championed draconian restrictions on life and often won praise for doing so. Going into this week's election, Terry McAuliffe, Phil Murphy, and other politicians had every reason to expect voters to cheer similar interventions in other areas. But voters, it turns out, are over their pandemic panic and want something closer to a traditionally restrained government minding its manners and paying attention to the public's concerns.
"From Virginia's Tidewater region to the Philadelphia suburbs to Long Island, voters on Tuesday issued an unmistakable repudiation of the Democratic Party that was wider and deeper than even some of its more pessimistic tacticians were anticipating," acknowledged a Washington Post post-mortem.
Virginia and New Jersey drew particular attention as states where Republicans were supposed to be less viable than ever after years of Trump fatigue. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) exercised often-monarchical pandemic policy that won raves from voters. He unilaterally authorized the seizure of private property, dismissed Bill of Rights-based objections to lockdown orders, and sniffed that protests against his actions didn't rise to the level of other causes. As recently as August, voters considered COVID-19 the top issue facing the state, with Monmouth University pollsters reporting "voters give Murphy a clear advantage on the pandemic (46% to 21% for [Republican Jack] Ciattarelli) and a narrower edge on jobs and the economy (35% to 27%)." Overall, Murphy led by double digits.
So, how did election day get resolved in Murphy's favor by what Politico calls "a razor-thin margin"?
"From a list of seven different policy areas asked about in the poll, 'taxes' emerges, nominally, as the top issue," and the pandemic slipped to fourth place, Monmouth's pollsters noted when they revisited the contest last week. Murphy brought the same not-so-light touch to taxes as to public health.
"If you're a one-issue voter and tax rate is your issue, either a family or a business, if that's the only basis upon which you're going to make a decision, we're probably not your state," Murphy huffed to a gathering of business leaders in 2019 before pushing a tax hike through the legislature. Ciattarelli put that quote at the center of his advertising while Murphy defended his moves.
"If your business model includes high value-added, highly skilled workforce, we're on your list," the governor told Bloomberg two weeks ago. "We are not going to be the low-cost state to live or work in."
Murphy went on to just barely win a reelection fight that was supposed to be in the bag.
Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe wasn't in office during the pandemic, but he also emphasized active government intervention against the virus.
"Democratic former Gov. Terry McAuliffe lambasted Republican Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday night over his opposition to mandating Covid-19 vaccines for state workers in the second and final debate of the Virginia governor's race," CNN reported at the end of September after the second gubernatorial debate. "The candidates' split on vaccines … has emerged as a central issue in 2021's marquee governor's race."
Sure enough, voters gave McAuliffe the edge over Youngkin on the pandemic in polling by Monmouth University. But that margin shrunk as Virginia voters moved past public health worries.
"The top issues chosen as the most important first or second factor in Virginians' vote for governor are jobs and the economy (45%, up from 39% in September) and education and schools (41%, up from 31%)," the late-October poll added. "Just 23% name the Covid pandemic as one of their top two issues, which is a drop from 32% last month."
Like Murphy, McAuliffe's kingly policy preferences extended well beyond the response to COVID-19. He made headlines with a dismissive quip about parental concerns over schools and lesson content.
"I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach," McAuliffe snorted during a September 28 debate against Youngkin.
When critics pushed back, McAuliffe trashed concerns over curricula influenced by Critical Race Theory as "racist" and a "dog whistle."
The once and not-so-future governor plummeted in the polls and dramatically lost to Youngkin.
Elsewhere, government overreach got comparable slaps. The socialist nominated as the Democratic candidate for mayor of Buffalo, New York, endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was rejected by voters who handed the incumbent moderate Democrat a rare write-in victory.
In Minneapolis, voters highly critical of the city's police department nevertheless spurned a ballot proposal to eliminate the police and replace them with a vaguely defined Department of Public Safety. Amid crime fears, city residents seem to prefer the devil they know over a new agency with an amorphous "public health" focus after 18 months of just that in dealing with the pandemic.
"Americans have shifted back to favoring a more hands-off approach for government in addressing the nation's problems after a rare endorsement of a more active role last year," Gallup reported in mid-October. "Last year marked only the second time in Gallup's 29-year trend that at least half of Americans endorsed an active role for the government on this item," the polling firm added. Before the pandemic, Americans supported activist government for only a brief while after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks before returning to a preference for "fewer government services and lower taxes." That's happening once again.
On the national scene, that preference may be reflected in weak support for the multi-trillion-dollar spending schemes stalled in Congress. "A plurality (32%) of Americans think the bills would hurt people like them if they became law," finds a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll.
McAuliffe, Murphy, and other political hopefuls are floundering in a country that's losing its tolerance for imperious officials. Voters are by no means unified in what they want, and it's not at all obvious that they voted on the same issues this week. But it's clear that most people have moved beyond the crisis climate that drove them to cut a lot of slack for government during the worst days of COVID-19.
Panicked Americans surrendered a lot of power during the pandemic. Now they want their country back.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
The pendulum is a curious thing. When it swings back from its current position, it doesn’t stop in the middle. It continues headlong to about the same point on the opposite side. Whether it’s parents in VA telling the likes of McAwful to fuck off or employees forcing companies to back down from the jab mandate, it’s heartening to see.
Aside from a few exceptions, health has not been a condition of general employment. There are state and federal laws that prohibit that.
Monmouth is but another poling outfit that can’t even pick its own nose. I personally know plenty of NJ residents that want to punch this piece of garbage governor upside his evil ass head. Once more something really stinks about his “win”.
The Phucko Knows
Seriously I don’t know why more people haven’t tried this, I work two shifts, 2 hours in the day and 2 in the evening…h And i get surly a check of $12600 what’s awesome is I m working from home so I get more time with my kids.
Try it, you won’t regret it……..CASHAPP NOW
Cheating? In New Jersey?
I am shocked, I tell you, absolutely shocked.
Remind me, when was the last New Jersey election in which cheating was NOT a factor?
Seriously I don’t know why more people haven’t tried this, I work two shifts, 2 hours in the day and 2 in the evening…GVt And i get surly a check of $12600 what’s awesome is I m working from home so I get more time with my kids.
Try it, you won’t regret it! ……………..VISIT HERE
These are 2 pay checks $78367 and $87367. that i received in last 2 months. I am very happy that i can make thousands in my part time and now i am enjoying my life. Everybody can do this and earn lots of dollars from home in very short time period.XRd Your Success is one step away Click Below Webpage…..
Just visit this website now………. Pays 24
Sarah getting Paid upto $18953 in the week, working on-line at home. I’m Student. I shocked when my sister’s told me about her check that was $97k. It’s very easy to do.WFz Everybody will get this job. Go to home media tab for additional details……
So I started………….. E-CASH
I am taking in substantial income two Hundred$ dollar online from my PC. A month ago I GOT check of almost $31k, this online work is basic and FVk direct, don’t need to go OFFICE, Its home online activity.
For More Information Visit…………Pays24
Sorry, but once you give away your freedoms and rights, it’s not so easy to get them back. The politicians enjoy having your rights in their pocket. They way they can use them to coerce you to do what they want.
I can’t believe so many people have just bowed down to government officials over the past two years, saying “master, master, tell me what I can and can’t do, just keep me safe”.
Foolish, foolish sheep!
Thats why reason should have tried pushing back harder instead of “understanding why” politicians were asking for masks and mandates. Bailey had numerous articles demanding government do something including mass daily testing.
So few articles the last 2 years discussing risk analysis or individual freedoms.
The beauty of libertarianism is that it is one of the few political philosophies that was equipped to push back against this over-reach. Once you can logically determine the boundaries of the NAP, it is pretty clear what comes next. You don’t need science, or models of human behavior. You merely need to define where aggression starts, and move from there.
I admit that libertarian philosophy, in this way, can be utopist and simplistic. But increasingly, I see an entire country of people looking for simple fixes to their convoluted moral codes. Is there anything more simplistic than pretending that locking down your citizens for two years will stop a virus? *That* is utopist and wishful thinking. And the mental gymnastics one needs to justify this at the moral level are pretty absurd- pseudo-mathematical formulations of how many individual rights outweigh a public good.
Phooey.
I’ll take the simple moral code that is difficult to live by over the convoluted moral justifications for simple fixes any day, thank you very much.
Plus the “science” crowd was ignoring a year’s worth of data that mask mandates and lockdowns either didn’t work or were having a negative overall effect.
(cont’d)
The reason I bring this up is that I feel the Reason staff have lost their way. I get it- I’ve been around the block. I’ve watched people attack libertarian philosophy for being unrealistic and Pollyannaish. Hell, 10 years ago, I was one of those people.
But one cannot give up arguing the NAP because it is hard. At the Federal level, we have leaders who will piss on your leg and tell you it’s piss but its good for you. And they will smile while they do it, knowing that the media will happily carry their (yellow) water for them. Reason staff will not “out science” these people. They will not out simplify people.
The libertarian brand gets a bad rap because serious writers have abandoned the defense of its moral foundation to the crazies, not because it is in and of itself crazy. And as long as the Reason staff are unwilling to defend the actual tenets of the NAP on moral grounds, you will see exactly the problems JesseAZ complains of- tepid pragmatic appeals to freedom, when what we need is a confident moral case for liberty.
The reason I bring this up is that I feel the Reason staff have lost their way.
I think it’s fairly clear that there are very few “actual libertarians” on the Reason staff.
I say this as someone who’s not particularly prone to complaining about Reason’s coverage and who doesn’t tend to engage in ‘no true Scotsman’ games about who is and isn’t a ‘real’ libertarian.
I say this because it seems pretty clear that among the class of people who become journalists, vanishingly few are actually libertarian. Add to this that Reason is not a coveted destination in the profession – they have to take who they can get, usually very young recent graduates/interns getting their very first jobs. Reason can’t afford to have its bar for entry be “how well versed are you in Hayek and Rothbard?” It has to be “are you willing to consider libertarian perspectives as not being automatically invalid?”
I mean, as much as I do like KMW, she’s always been very clear that she comes to libertarianism from a utilitarian-technocratic realization that it produces the best results, not because she has an a priori commitment to individual liberty.
“Sorry, but once you give away your freedoms and rights, it’s not so easy to get them back. The politicians enjoy having your rights in their pocket. They way they can use them to coerce you to do what they want.”
When Newsom was inaugurated in March of 2020, I predicted it would take a year to claw back what power grabs he exercised each month, and there’s nothing yet to suggest that’s wrong.
We’ve given up a lot and it’s going to take a LONG time to get it back.
Seems like a majority of CA voters have no interest in clawing back anything.
This isn’t about “freedom”—it’s about FREEDUMB! NC having by far the lowest death rate shows mask mandates work to mitigate spread and they aren’t that big a deal. So the Delta surge has smoothed out the data and now we can see liberal counties in the southeast that had mask mandates have the lowest death rates even with high minority populations. So Fulton, Gwinnett, Charleston, Orange, Mecklenberg are counties in the SE with relatively low death rates. So we can say (conservatively) that DeSantis’ Covid “leadership” has cost 15,000 excess lives.
Writong “Freedumb” is bately a step above writing racial slurs.
And yet OSHA has just issued a vaccine mandate – although things look hopeful that there’s going to be a showdown over this, Biden isn’t done destroying the economy and reducing the people to abject poverty. Wait until January when refusing the vaccine may not only cost you your job but your weekly bread ration, we’ll see if people are so defiant.
Biden still trying to push the Green New Deal spending in his budget reconciliation bill–Pelosi was trying to take a vote on it again last night. He’s coordinating economic and environmental policy with the European Union. He isn’t backing down. Biden’s plan appears to be about leaving his permanent mark on American society–like kamikaze pilots trying to leave their mark on an American aircraft carrier.
On the one hand, Biden seems to be committing political suicide, but on the other hand, I can’t help but wonder if he’s trying to emulate Obama, who infuriated the American people with TARP and ObamaCare but somehow managed to win reelection. I prefer the political suicide explanation because of Biden’s age. He may be resigned to facing Democrat challengers for the nomination if he runs again, too.
Ever see the end of Thelma and Louise?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z88U915uq8
That’s Biden and Pelosi.
Thanks for the GOP talking points Ken. I especially loved your party line defense of UF trying to spike free speech in service to the state’s MAGA governor. I’m an admitted Democrat, here to argue with any willing libertarians – and occasionally agree with them – and maybe you should come out of the closet and admit your otherwise obvious allegiances and goals. Libertarians don’t cheer freedom of speech restrictions ………. do they?
Your arguments are infantile though. Why bother? You dismiss all counter facts with a hand waive, that isn’t a discussion. It is you pushing non backed talking points.
Notice that Joe Friday and White Mike make a specific point of singling out Ken? It is a concerted effort.
I don’t give a shit if they are unique individuals or not, they certainly don’t act like they are. Joe Friday is certainly dumb enough to be White Mike.
That’s why I call Joe Barbie, always running after Ken.
Fuck off and die, slimy piece of lefty shit.
No, we don’t.
Fuck off and die, slimy piece of lefty shit.
You’re assuming that Biden is doing anything. Most likely he isn’t. He’s barely holding it together as a figurehead to be trotted out every fortnight. The driving force behind this is the true belief of the staffers, advisors and czars in the regime.
When his pspokesperson gets psick, it tell you they have no idea how to control this virus.
She was pfibbing.
Biden has recently been giving his pronouncements from the South Auditorium stage, where he can read directly from a screen, while looking straight ahead, standing in front of props and phony background.
At this point, it would be more dignified if he just handed over the reigns over to Heels Up Kamala, or a stuffed doll on a pedestal with a speaker in its belly.
“Obama, who infuriated the American people”
Infuriated some of the American people. Others thought everything he did was super awesome.
All your comment reveals is that you are living in a bubble, or that you don’t consider about half the people in your country to be true Americans or don’t consider them to be people.
And now? Do you think the same amount of people who thought he was doing an awesome job prior to reelection still feel that way?
There are significant numbers on the left, and particularly far left, who’ve come to realize what an absolute fraud he was. From his drone strikes, persecution of Snowden and Assange, his *enhancement* of Tarp with bonuses instead of prosecutions for Wall Street, and virtually zero done for black communities – most who are even slightly knowledgable on his actual accomplishments have much love for him now that the illusion has worn off.
It’s fairly akin to Bush Jr. and the reckoning the right went through.
Yep. Obama made me vote Republican for the first time in my life on his second term.
When he appointed the ex-VP of Monsanto to an FDA post it was an early red flag. Downhill from there.
Can you provide a link to an example of such a person? All the liberals I know are still totally enamored of Obama.
I’m interested to see if he pulls his nominee for Comptroller, a full-blown, “unreconstructed” communist. We need to hang that nomination around Biden’s neck.
This may be far fetched, but any chance OSHA doesn’t really want to deal with vaccine mandates and wrote their mandate in a way that could be easily challenged and then off their list of things to do?
A federal agency full of people who do not really want to work? Say it ain’t so.
If only all federal agents were so lazy. Then the government would only be expensive instead of expensive and malicious.
I don’t think so, but it’s possible.
It is known that OSHA has nowhere near the number of inspectors it would need to widely enforce this mandate. Which is going to make it even more of a mess, because enforcement is going to be spotty. And spotty enforcement has a tendency to turn into enforcement that targets political enemies.
Zero chance.
Keep in mind that OSHA makes work rules, reviews paperwork, and issues fines. They don’t do scientific research or engineering research or fund safety projects. It’s purely a bureaucracy.
They’ve complained for a decade that they’re underfunded and need to do more inspections. They want to do more paperwork and issue more fines!
OSHA sees this vaccine mandate as a jobs and funding program for bureaucrats.
They love it.
Biden just said he wants a rule for businesses under 100 employees.
I saw. I am waiting for the scathing public comment period…
They got around the comment period with the current rule by doing it under ’emergency’ conditions, did they not?
It was there. Quietly ignored, but there.
Funny thing. By delaying enforcement for two months, it’s facially not an emergency.
Emergencies are defined by immediacy. That’s why we don’t call 911 to request help for lost keys.
I expect it to be struck down for that simple technicality.
“Virginia and New Jersey drew particular attention as states where Republicans were supposed to be less viable than ever after years of Trump fatigue.”
This may be as close as I’ve seen Reason get to an admission that TDS is real.
For people consumed with “Trump fatigue,” the media cannot stop talking about him.
The Democrats’ vision of the world was so distorted by their obsession with Trump, that they couldn’t see what was happening around them. Some of them were so insane with TDS, they staged a phony neo-Nazi rally and smeared parents who opposed their local school boards as insurrectionist Trump supporters. They thought denouncing parents as racists and insurrectionists was a winning strategy! They aren’t living in a bubble. They have an anxiety disorder with severe features that warps their view of reality.
And they don’t seem to have learned a thing. They almost lose a state Biden won by 15 points a year ago, and they double down about racist dog whistles. The Republicans elect the first black woman to be Virginia’s lieutenant governor, and they denounce them as racists. Meanwhile, Americans’ faith in the news media continues to test new lows, and MSNBC’s and CNN’s news ratings are in the toilet. These are people who can’t be persuaded that their house is on fire, even as it burns down around them.
And they remain focused on Trump.
The big lie says hello Ken. Republicans can’t get over losing in 2020. You’re fucking majorly delusional if you can’t recognize that. The Republicans can’t accept losing an election. Trump was a terrible candidate and a terrible president. His incompetence in dealing with Covid killed tens of thousands. These people would still be here if Trump was a halfway decent and competent individual. You guys elected a clown and lost to an old man with a speak impediment. More Americans than ever said fuck Donald Trump last year. That ain’t TDS it’s the only verdict and opinion that matters.
Agree. Had Trump arrested Progressive NY Governor Cuomo (D) early in his diabolical campaign against seniors for crimes against humanity, many thousands would not have died due to this mechanized form of government euthanasia.
Yeah, and he let Fauci and the CDC get away with way too much too.
You’re the only one harping on the 2020 election. The Dems fucked up and it cost them this week. Your TDS is not a good thing.
The Democrats did fuck up and have been fucking up and they lost. But Republicans, like Joe Friday pointed out below, have nothing to offer the American people. You guys can’t legislative anything other than giving billionaires tax cuts and appointinh corporate bought and paid for judges.
Haven’t you been paying attention to Ken?
Democrats are totalitarians! They’re evil incarnate!
Republicans are “mere” authoritarians.
Totalitarian Democrats want to control everything you think and do! They’re evil!
Republicans don’t care what you think. They merely want to control everything you do.
So the choice is clear! Vote for Republicans! They will let you think what you want while they tell you what to do!
Joe Friday has nothing to offer anyone. Not sure why’d you reference thought from a troll?
^ This
Huh, I don’t recall seeing much trolling from our favorite no-nonsense LAPD officer. He seems like he is straightforward about being a Democrat and is willing to have serious conversation.
Oh, LAPD? That explains his warped opinions. The other day, he endorsed appointing activist judges to SCOTUS. He talked about how it would be best to finally have a “liberal court” that reflects the will of the people. Independent courts, separation of powers and checks and balances were revealed not to be his thing (my response below this points to why and where, Joe’s linked post is TLDR for you):
https://reason.com/2021/11/03/supreme-court-seems-poised-to-rule-against-new-york-gun-law/?comments=true#comment-9191858
Dirt like that always has a high probability to be straight out of California. Thanks for confirming that. It explains a lot.
Oh and to wrap it up, Joe Friday is only marginally into the trolling bix (“I feel your pain, loser” is where his creativity ends).
However, with posts like the above linked by me, he engages in something worse than trolling: Fascism.
edit: into the trolling biz
So, jackboots with heels is what you’re saying?
Democrats don’t have anything to offer except hating yourself.
Not true. They offer smugness.
They used to have the hottest women, but that isn’t true anymore.
Cutting taxes, reducing regulations, and, most importantly, refusing to expand the welfare state is “doing something.”
+1
I’ll agree that Republicans in the federal government are pretty useless. But still better than having a D majority that would pass all of their insane spending and other agenda items.
State lever Republicans seem to be getting some things enacted. Mixed bag by my judgement, but some pretty positive things. I hope to see more laws inacted to prevent a repeat of the public health authoritarianism we have seen recently, but we’ll see how that goes.
You do realize that the only meaningful tax reform left that Dems are currently on the hill for is cutting the SALT deduction right?
You know. To the benefit of the top 1% (who will receive ~60% of the benefit).
GTFO with your shitty talking points and bumper sticker sloganeering.
I don’t rightly know what Team Red offers, but I do know Team Blue offers crushing taxes and regulation, and they claim authority over my autonomy as an individual.
Fuck off.
What should Trump have done differently that would’ve saved tens of thousands? Last I checked, hundreds of thousands have died under Biden. Or is that Trump’s fault too?
The people who died from Covid this year were given the opportunity to save themselves with a vaccine but they choose not to use it and that’s on them mostly. The people who died last year did not have that opportunity and they had to navigate all that Republican disinformation which made it worse.
If people die because they choose medical treatment based upon politics, then fucking let them. Chalk it up to terminal stupidity.
Even if you take that fuck ‘em attitude, they clog up the ICUs while they are in the process of dying.
Go for a walk, fatty.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/most-covid-19-hospitalizations-due-four-conditions
and the people who died from the vaccine?
Nah, fuck ’em. Pharma stonks go brrrrrrrr
It isn’t even really a vaccine if it requires a booster after a few months. You guys on the left are working so immensely hard to lose all credibility.
I will still try to communicate and I won’t be vengeful when your ship has sunk entirely. I can’t guarantee that others will react like this though.
Fuck no, I will not forget this. When that ship sinks I will be there with skipping stones.
More people have died with/of/nearby to a rumored sighting of Covid this year than last year though, even with the not-vaccines that Trump pushed ahead while winning more support, especially from minorities, than his election.
I think you’re still watching the TDS networks, Strudel.
Not to mention that Trump appears to fully intend to run again in 2024, meaning it is perfectly reasonable to keep paying attention to him.
Seems like a “big lie” would be claiming your opponent was colluding with a foreign government while you were actually doing so.
Republicans can’t get over losing in 2020
Republicans didn’t lose 2020, the left ‘fortified’ it, didn’t you read the article they bragged about doing such in?
“The big lie says hello Ken. Republicans can’t get over losing in 2020.”
Point out how stupid it is for TDS Democrats to target parents as if they were insurrectionists–in the wake of progressive loss inflicted by suburbanite women–and a resident progressive jumps in to tell us that the problem is Trump. It’s like you were sent by central casting as an example of someone with TDS!
This wasn’t supposed to prove that progressive are still obsessively fixated on Trump, was it? If you can’t learn from your losses, when will you learn? Obsessively fixating on Trump is important to you. Not everyone else! For the rest of the non-progressive world, reality is the way it is regardless of what Trump does or doesn’t do.
Yeah Ken, but you fail to note that the Democrats have and continue to have a fully fleshed platform of principles and legislative goals which is what they focus on. The GOP – and this I include the right wing libertarians here like you – is totally fixated on culture wars and without any platform – literally they had none in the 2020 election – or other principles. You and the GOP are an empty suit of resentment, only clear about what you are against.
“Democrats have and continue to have a fully fleshed platform of principles and legislative goals which is what they focus on.”
What are those principles and legislative goals? Are any of them cultural? Wars require at least two parties.
The party of chest feeding and birthing people has no cultural element in its platform? Seriously? A fair part of the vote was motivated by opposition to the Dems’ principles and legislative goals.
If by “principles” you mean “totalitarian impulses” then we agree, Barbie. I can never keep up with these changing words…
“Democrats have and continue to have a fully fleshed platform of principles and legislative goals which is what they focus on.”
FFS, do you get paid to proffer this screed?
You and the GOP are an empty suit of resentment
P-R-O-J-E-C-T-I-O-N
Democrat principles suck ass.
On the other hand, Republicans have abandoned having principles.
You are full of shit and neither you, nor Ds in general, ever had any to abandon.
Indeed. It is an actual fact that the GOP had no platform for the 2020 election. How could they with Trump heading the ticket?
Can you imagine sitting down with Trump to try to work out a cohesive platform: it would just be him ranting randomly.
I’d take no principles over evil ones.
To me the fact that Trump is stuck in their heads means two things. One, they have nothing to replace him with and two, he was right and to them that means dangerous.
Trump is only dangerous in that he came down that escalator without years and years of political maneuvering. It proved that spending your entire life in politics like the Clintons does not make you special. The elite cannot bear the thought that they are not essential.
“To me the fact that Trump is stuck in their heads means … he was right”
Can you explain the logic of that statement for me. I’m not following. Seems like a President who was largely wrong could just as well get stuck in people’s heads.
“Can you explain the logic of that statement for me…”
If there’s logic involved,. there’s no reason to waste time explaining it to you.
What the most hate about Trump [who has more than his share of faults] is that he energized the deplorables and their “her turn” candidate was shown to the curb. Like Mike Tysons aphorism, they had a plan until they got hit in the face. It shook, and continues to shake, them to the core. How could it be the the smart set, the progressive urbanites, the ones who “know” what is good for us, with all the backing of the MSM, got repudiated?
And while Trump lost, those fucking deplorables are still at it, and took Virginia and damn near took the deep blue New Jersey. The sons of bitches are just fucking it up for them!
The her turn candidate won the vote over Trump by 3 million. The EC misfired for the 4th time in our long history and no doubt the Republicans here would be screaming bloody murder if they had been the victim. Hey, if Kerry – the only democrat to lose the vote in the last 8 presidential elections – had gotten 60k more votes in Ohio in 2004, he’d have been president while losing the popular vote. Can one of you Republicans explain what great principle of our system would have been proven by that misfire, other than winner take all state results suck?
It’s something pretty unfamiliar to your totalitarian lifestyle, but it’s called freedom and State’s choice, Barbie.
On the far far other end, you have Colorado giving it up without a campaign, as their EC votes to go national popular vote winner.
The EC didn’t misfire. They did what they were required to do.
Clinton ran for celebrity, thinking it was a popularity contest among coastal liberals. It wasn’t.
She lost where it mattered, the states that affect the EC.
That’s why the D were so keen on cheating in those same states to ensure Biden won.
You need to get over Trump losing. It was almost a year ago. He was just a sleazy politician and the worst kind really. Fuck him and hopefully he gets indicted and ruined because he more than deserves it.
Whenever the Biden administration fucks up, which is daily, the progressive trolls either chaff and redirect with something unrelated about Trump or attempt to “both sides” it with some quasi-related but insignificant anecdote regarding Trump.
I doubt Reason or the progressive wing of its commentariat can go an entire day without mentioning him. There are individual members of said group that likely cannot accomplish this. Can you?
Rent free, Strudel.
Point out TDS, and progressives will tell you all about why obsessing over Trump is so important.
I think they should absolutely keep Trump and the insurrectionists as their central narrative going into the election of 2022.
Talk about nothing else! Tell suburban women they’re a bunch of racist insurrectionists for opposing their local school boards. See where that gets you.
Because there’s no way to know. I mean, that might not have worked in deep red states like Virginia and New Jersey, but in the rest of America, they obsess over Trump and the insurrection–because they’re smart.
Just stick with that until November of 2022. Please.
They don’t admit they suffer from it though.
Will reason even offer a mea culpa for pushing trump/russia as the entire story collapses?
Delusional people who suffer from anxiety disorders, don’t know they’re delusional.
They think their delusions are real.
They look at a bunch of suburban moms opposing their local school boards, fixate on someone in the crowd wearing a MAGA hat, and come to believe that they’re all trying to overthrow the government.
That bogus stunt of having fake neo-Nazis campaign for Youngkin actually made sense to them. Plenty of progressives really are triggered by these things. They’re not faking. They’re insane with TDS.
When suburban moms vote against an incumbent governor who says they have no business telling schools what to teach their children, they start screaming about white fragility and how the voters in Virginia and New Jersey are a bunch of racists.
Amazingly, after Tuesday’s huge election loss for the Democrats, Biden doubled down on his stupidity by going forward with his Jan 4 vaccine mandate on most US employees (i.e. those who work for employers with more than 100 employees).
And yet, new cases of covid, covid hospitalizations and covid deaths in America have all declined by half since mid September.
Cases and deaths will rise as the weather turns cold, then fall as the weather warms.
Biden and his ilk will first blame inadequate compliance with mandates, then claim victory in the Spring.
When the result is certain, the only question is when to take the action. He picked Jan 4.
The delayed implementation may work against his plan, though.
It’s not really an emergency when it can wait two months. And he’s using emergency power to mandate it. Contradiction.
But even if it’s struck down, he’ll claim victory anyway. “We cajoled employers, and look, death rates came down!”
Fuck the pricks that promote the pricks.
It’s pricks all the way down.
Weird, I’ve seen variations of “it’s turtles all the way down” a ton this past week.
Fuck Joe Biden
sarc, Joe asshole and shitlord hardest hit.
“If you’re a one-issue voter and tax rate is your issue, either a family or a business, if that’s the only basis upon which you’re going to make a decision, we’re probably not your state,” Murphy huffed
I know this quote has gotten a lot of exposure, but I still can’t get over it.
That’s how the commies want the whole country to be. Rob us blind, and give the bums enough to keep pulling the lever.
Wow, total unawareness that tax rates are at the top of most people’s list of political issues they care about.
Are you somehow an expert on “Total Unawareness”? Do you have a degree in it?
Shorter version: “Sure, New Jersey’s government is expensive, but you get to live in New Jersey! Watcha complainin’ about?”
I just visit Jersey for the pizza. State’s pretty much a shithole otherwise. Money well spent, yeah?
Why aren’t Republicans complaining about a rigged election?
You mean in Virginia? It might have something to do with the fact that the “counting” isn’t continuing for several weeks as tens of thousands of new “votes” are “found” each day.
If you mean New Jersey, then Republicans are complaining about a rigged election there because the “counting” seems like it will continue for several weeks as tens of thousands of “votes” are “found” each day.
The honest answer would have been “It’s only rigged when we don’t get the result we want! Keep counting until we get the result we want!”
Why did you change your tune on the covid thread after declaring all criticism of mandates as a strawman maga talking point?
sarcasmic
November.25.2020 at 8:56 pm
Flag Comment Mute User
Not so much that as the Trumpistas are against anything that isn’t 100% effective, and anyone who suggests anything that isn’t perfect will be showered with hatred
And if you paid any fucking attention you would know the irregularities were called out in both states woth jersey admitting they needed to look into 56 locations that stopped counting on Tuesday.
But you’re a leftist troll at this point.
Sarc changed liquor brands. Rough supply chain these days.
He was arguing with Tony late yesterday in a pathetic attempt to establish his lie that he mocks both sides. Of course Tony is a flaming panic whore who can’t see Joe Stalin in his rearview mirror, so it is faint criticism.
And I pointed out how days earlier he was attacking who he views as conservatives for the same arguments he was making.
Why aren’t Democrats complaining that Republicans are trying to block recounts and audits?
Let us know when that happens and you might have a point.
Can we fire that idiot Fauci yet?
Jail.
And not the country club, but the pound-you-in-the-ass federal pen.
fire at him in jail.
Or put him in a jail cell and fire it into the sun.
Why this obsession with Fauci? Just ignore the dude.
Yeah, he’s not just some “dude.”
Why are you systematically downplaying or asking to ignore anything that doesn’t benefit the Democrats? Don’t you see how obvious this is?!
And, based on the Liberal commentariat at the Post, we can expect to see them doubling down on the “Anyone who doesn’t agree with me 100% is an anti-vax, racist, White supremacy, fascist Redneck!” line for 2022. Some have proposed executing moderate Democratic legislators who are not sufficiently doctrinaire.
All purges eventually entail some form of violence.
They are already harassing and threatening Sinema and Mancin. They blocked Mancin’s car at his parking garage yesterday.
Democratic citizenship requires some amount of effort and good faith.
The Republicans don’t want freedom, they want to be told what to do and what to think. How is that not obvious?
it’s clear that most people have moved beyond the crisis climate that drove them to cut a lot of slack for government during the worst days of COVID-19.
That is very possible. But I’m not sure how far Americans themselves have actually moved or changed their thinking. The majority of people almost never form an active view of what to do. That takes a lot of time/effort. Rather they form an idea about how others (esp the PTB and those who are involved) react to something. About which intermediaries they will trust to act on their behalf.
From what I can see, those areas where the intermediaries/PTB were highly ideological in their approach from the start, remain ideological and haven’t changed much at all. Those areas where the intermediaries/PTB were more pragmatic, have moved more from pandemic to endemic stage. Not because Americans changed the intermediaries they trust but because people were focused on the virus as enemy rather than other side as enemy.
I can’t see a single commenter here who changed. Why would one expect other people to have done the changing.
By 2022 elections, the pandemic will have faded as a pressing issue because most Americans will be back to “normal” and Afghanistan screwups will be way way back in the rear view mirror. The GOP better have some new reasons to gin up support if they expect to take back the House and Senate. I live in a newly blue county, and the blue held on to its row office and judge gains this election. That means our new “moderate” blue congresswoman can breathe easier as she votes for whatever progressive fascism/socialism the Dems wish to legislate.
I like the optimism, but I strongly disagree. The ripples of supply, virus and general incompetence in centralized gov’t are going to continue to hammer the bottom line for Americans, even after Afghanistan (maybe, terrorist run now…) fades from memory.
“By 2022 elections, the pandemic will have faded as a pressing issue because most Americans will be back to “normal”…”
Bullshit.
Assholes like JFree aren’t going to get off that pony any time soon; too many chances to tell others what to do.
“The GOP better have some new reasons to gin up support”
They’ve just been clearly shown that respecting the parent’s role in public education is a winner.
Runaway inflation and a 30 trillion dollar debt and a failing power grid will be plenty of reasons.
In 2021, the pandemic was fading.
Then the network broadcast and print media decided to hype the Delta variant, instead of burying or at least severely downplaying it. This was followed by that cunt Ferrer enacting a mask mandate in Los Angeles County.
It seems oppressing people was more important than painting FJB as the champion that conquered COVID.
You’re also a myopic sockpuppet vomiting progshit, so there’s that to consider.
The coprophenomena you exhibit must indeed be disturbing to you. On the bright side, you can inform your parents that this does not prove they were bad parents. Rather it merely indicates that either your current dosage of antipsychotics is not quite right or your hyperkinetic disorder is more complicated than diagnosed. Let us both hope that it can be resolved with mere electroconvulsive therapy than with a full prefrontal lobotomy.
Did you copy/paste that from some other proggie shithead? Admit it. You know you did.
I think the majority are still afraid of COVID and want the government to “do something”.
But the majority are also against the wokest of the woke deciding what to teach everyone’s kids.
The pandemic opened up cupboards full of prexisting issues. Who controls schools, police training/funding, worker dissatisfaction w jobs, supply chain/globalization stuff, etc.
imo those who used covid as an excuse to push their hobbyhorse forward (an ideological way of dealing with covid) will get their butt handed to them at some point when the covid reality/perception changes enough. Key – at some point.
Those who just dealt with covid on its own terms still have that other stuff to deal with. But I suspect they have either already or will be able to change the priorities as covid importance diminishes.
I can’t see a single commenter here who changed.
You’re not looking very hard. When this virus was first announced, I was quite vocal about my concern about it. I was not against the initial concept of “2 weeks to flatten the curve”. I thought that was a rather light touch on the economy to:
1. Flatten the curve.
2. Learn something about this virus.
I was taken to task for it in the comments (in some cases– not all– but some cases fairly I’d estimate).
Then as two weeks passed, four weeks passed, six weeks passed, and we started to learn much more about the virus and the science became much more clear, I began to realize that the ongoing lockdowns and restrictions were unwarranted.
Then in blue states, I could see an unhinged, fearful anti-science element taking shape (another word for that group would be called ‘Democrats’) and they were clearly salivating on exacting a form of Total Social Control on society over a virus which was increasingly looking like a slightly-worse-than-normal flu– worse symptoms for nominally healthy people who caught it, and possible death for elderly, infirm people. I quickly realized that what we need was a targeted approach and that destroying any semblance of liberty for millions of people being subjected to prison-like lockdowns was exactly the wrong approach.
As the science became even MORE clear about the nature of the virus, the lockdowns and mask requirements appears to not only be not working, but were counter-productive, the Karen Waffe (Democrats) began to double, triple, quadruple down on their anti-science crusade, screeching about masks (surgical masks don’t work) social distancing (a number that was literally made up in a meeting at the CDC), lockdowns (which have far ranging consequences for public health which were worse than the virus). They’ve lied about the numbers, lied about statistics, moved goalposts, played with definitions, gaslit and propagandized on this disease at every possible turn.
It is so obvious at this point that this was never anything more than exacting a lab experiment of Total Control over the population that it really doesn’t even bear mentioning.
I can see why you’re annoyed with how Seattle reacted. A pretty extreme ideological politics combined with a massive employer that is by far the biggest beneficiary of permalockdowns everywhere on Earth. Early on, there was an article in Fortune about Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, Costco, Nordstrom combining to figure out covid and lockdowns. Seems like there would have been diverse pressures in the city itself. OTOH – those folks are all pajama class so maybe not diverse at all.
Hey check this out helful blog! Game Casino Penghasil Uang
So, how did election day get resolved in Murphy’s favor by what Politico calls “a razor-thin margin”?
How? Election ‘fortification’. Duh.
They just count Dem votes last is all, nothing to see.
Politicians that are used to molesting and raping women find it easy to slide into the role of molesting and raping everyone.
We were done with them in WA for the last 16 months but King Jay doesn’t give a shit what we want, just like he doesn’t give a shit about actually following the rules for passing laws.
Free Aaron Rodgers!
Free Kyrie Irving!
Irving is passing up millions of dollars for a principled stance against New York’s vaccine mandate, in solidarity with the workers who are threatened with job loss if they don’t comply.
oh ya Kyrie too. I won’t do NBA until I can wear a Mavs jersey to Mark Cuban’s AAC w/ Free Tibet! on the back
Kyrie is a POS, but the sun will shine on a dog’s ass on a clear day.
sure but also political prisoner.
Meanwhile, more and more fully vaxxed players and coaches are testing positive every week. But please, libs, keep clutching pearls about Rodgers.
Not in California. We had one shot with the recall to get rid of Karen Tiresome, but we dropped the ball.
Is it just me, or does everyone in the picture look like they’re taking a whiz?
Keep your fantasies to yourself.
Kyrie is a POS, but the sun will shine on a dog’s ass on a clear day.
Oh good, comment issues today.
Democrats believed the wrong conclusion that because the public voted out Trump it was an endorsement of Biden and the progressive ideology.
I reality most people were tired of the spectacle of Trump and the constant corporate media hype about Trump and the constant impeachment and lawsuits and actions taken against Trump by Democrats. In effect there was a lot of Trump overload and not all of it was actually Trump himself, but rather his opponents.
Now in the era of Biden, the lurch to the far left and the covid regime. People are tired of this stuff too. Biden campaigned as a return to pre-Trump, but didn’t return to pre-Trump, but launched an onslaught of attacks on individual freedoms.
There is a sense of buyers remorse with Biden, not that they wanted Trump either. Certainly, with Biden we have a much more authoritarian government than with Trump. Neither should have ever been president. We need to offer the public a better option.
Infiltrate the two major parties with liberty minded people if that is your choice, present and offer Libertarian candidates where there isn’t a liberty minded candidate that has infiltrated one of the major political parties.
Focus on local races, but still offer state wide and national races. High profile candidates should campaign with local candidates. Create a fleet of buses traversing the country with numerous campaign stops. Standardize the look and feel of the buses so they are immediately recognizable and seen all over the place. Start this now even before we have actual candidates.
There is an opportunity, but we need to spread the word that there is another option, a better option. The vase majority of people don’t know about the Libertarian party or libertarian ideas. People are wanting more, but can’t support what they don’t know exists.
The time is now to spread the work to everyone that that we the citizens hold the power and not the government, corporations and special interest groups.
“I reality most people were tired of the spectacle of Trump”
I very much agree with this sentiment. I feel his policies were popular amongst most Americans, though. And I think he would have been reelected if not for “the spectacle of Trump.” If he would have governed the same, but behaved like DeSantis, he would still be president.
Cannot stand to hear him talk, but he was effective.
If he would have governed the same,
He never had the opportunity to govern; The opposing Party used the career Bureaucracy to undermine his every action and enlisted a willing Press to report as the DNC choose.
Panicked Americans surrendered a lot of authority during the pandemic. Now they want their country back.
Maybe in red states. I have no indication of that here.
As someone also living in King County, I agree with you. There is no indication that anyone wants to get back to normal, it’s really an unhealthy obsession of leftists out here.
Conversely, I’ve been to multiple deep red states recently, and at least where I was, the pandemic was already over regardless of case counts or anything else. The people had moved on.
I was in Idaho over the summer, and there was no indication there was a pandemic going on. My vaccinated, unmasked ass never caught the coof.
Still there were plenty of COVID-19 deaths in Idaho. You wouldn’t have seen them unless you were hanging out in a hospital.
The point of my comment was to make a personal note about the fact that I was cavorting in an un-locked down state wearing no mask and even though I was vaccinated, I never caught the disease. I was allowed to “return to normal”.
Well the sheep are still bleating covid hysteria and msm is still trying to keep the fear whipped into a frenzy, so this is going to take a while.
This seems to vary significantly between political districts, so I admit that my perception is myopic, but there is exactly zero indication that any freedoms are around the corner. In fact, quite the contrary. We are getting less freedom where I live– dressed up in “more freedom” if you “comply with a host of mandates”.
The hitch, speaking of the game theory of it all, is that Republicans give themselves the advantage of denying facts and science. They can make you hysterical about fake things while ignoring real things.
I suppose their defenders would say “Life’s not fair, suck it up.” But I am worried that civilization depends, to some degree, on major political factions not feeling free to reject facts and promote maximum death as a political strategy. Civilization can break down and has done so with less flagrant rejections of reality.
The anti-mitigation movement was never based in anything rational. Rational people know that pandemics are dealt with by people restricting their movement. But if you can simply claim that the virus isn’t real and nobody’s dying in overflowing hospitals, that it’s all a Soros conspiracy or whatever the fuck, then you win pretty much by default.
Rational people know that pandemics are dealt with by people restricting their movement.
Wrong.
I know, I know. You think you deal with deadly communicable diseases by french kissing everyone you can find.
I hate to break it to you, but I think your preferred media figures might be sex pests.
Also wrong. You manage to get just about everything wrong about the people you think you are arguing against. I don’t know why I keep bothering since, at least on this topic you are completely unwilling to engage with the actual arguments being made.
https://youtu.be/zG7XZ2JXZqY?t=1525
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5LWa18w-BE
Science denier.
Wooly Bully.
Finding an outlier who confirms your religious beliefs is not science.
Finding a totalitarian gov’t to confirm your religious beliefs is much better.
He’s no outlier.
Tony, you have heard all the arguments again and again. If you still think that this is what the people you are arguing with believe, then you are truly hopeless. You don’t have to agree, but you could at least make some attempt to understand other points of view.
There is a scientific debate going on. That’s how science works. There are many very smart experts who are not Trump cultists who disagree with the approach taken around the world. This is going on everywhere. It is not all about American politics and it is not about “denying science”. If, when presented with a new phenomenon, you insist that “science” means agreeing all the time with a certain set of experts (and ignoring all experts who disagree), then you are the one denying science. Science is a process where every claim must be challenged and examined closely. If you aren’t trying to prove your own claims wrong, you aren’t doing science.
He’s a Democrat, which means that it’s been scientifically proven that he believes that catching the coof is a >50% chance of going to the hospital. And we expect rational discourse from someone like that, hiding in his house covered in saran-wrap and duct tape, believing that the disease has the kill rate of Ebola.
So why are we not all dead from the swine flu?
It seems like 5 minutes ago we were declaring that voters love lock downs and mandates because Newsome won his recall campaign. (By making it all about a black talk radio host who is the living embodiment of white supremacy for some reason)
In California, they do. In Washington, they do. In New York, they do. In flyover country, not so much.
Yup. Keep flying over.
Please.
21 was a start, more to do in 22 and 24. We’ll get it done.
Title Correction —
Voters are done letting the Nazi-Regime destroy the USA.
Let’s not forget the USA is a CONSTITUTIONAL Union of Republican States. The government theology of Majority RULERS (i.e. Democracy) has been going on long enough. Get the required 2/3rd Congress and 3/4 State Ratification of be considered POISONOUS to the USA.
Forget about being “tired” – have enough people figured out how badly they’ve been scammed, fake numbers, fake pandemic, all pushed by the liberal media, and even Reason went along, reporting on “cases” and “deaths” as if there was more than a shred of truth or actual danger.
The same (or less) margins that were deemed a mandate a year ago are now described as “razor thin” when the sheep lose. The toddlers now running the newsrooms need a hug from mommy.
$450,000 for illegal immigrants whose families were separated?
What about all the families separated because of the Covid 19/SARS2 pandemic, the denial of effective therapeutic treatments, the conflicts of interest in coercing treatment with the deadly Remdesivir and Covid 19/SARS2 “vaccines, and the undercounted injuries, disabilities, and deaths from the contaminated, leaky, and adverse reaction prone Covid 19/SARS2 “vaccines”.
I saw a separated Father crying on TV because his only son died due to his inoculation with the falsely advertised Covid 19/SARS2 “vaccines”. The worst is yet to come if the anticipated Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) reactions kill, injure, and maim millions of more Americans.
Our officials have lied about the origins of the Covid 19/SARS2 pandemic and lied about the available effective therapeutic treatments that could have prevented 85% of the deaths associated with the Covid 19/SARS2 infection. VAERS data on the Covid 19/SARS2 “vaccines” from the first two months was enough to stop the Covid 19/SARS2 “vaccines” from further distribution. Hundreds of thousands of deaths, injuries, and disabilities have resulted from continuing the use of Remdesivir and the Covid 19/SARS2 “vaccines”.
The Democrats didn’t just lie and use the Covid 19/SARS2 pandemic for political control, they injured, maimed, and killed too many Americans and others as well.
As far as teaching CRT…the Democratic party’s legacy in promoting slavery, racism, bigotry, segregation, discrimination, lynch mobs, and using violent militants like the KKK to quell opposition, should be taught to all Americans. I can’t believe that anyone would want to be a member of the Democratic party which is a memorial and Testament to that aforementioned legacy.
Using CRT to whitewash history and scapegoat Republicans for the Democratic party’s legacy has enraged Americans from every background.
Thanks for sharing valuable information Best Quotes
Next November is gonna be epic.
Nice Blog,
“Biden Enacts Africa Travel Ban Despite Calling Bans Racist, Xenophobic in 2020” Breitbart
I bet you really impressed the girls with that comment. It also got you muted.
Congratulations on the mute!
Double secret muting!
I ain’t taking that bet.
Who had 9:00 to 9:15 in the pool for what time Sarc publicly declares his mute list? I stuck with 11:30 – 11:45 after he was late yesterday. He must still be drunk.
“I don’t understand why the Jews couldn’t just ignore that Hitler fellow and his stormtroopers. The Allied Armies, too. It’s just weird.”