Trump’s people are not getting sick and dying. The Governor is allowing people in Florida to give people medicine for animals. This is so sad on so many levels, nursing shortages and other people who are sick that don’t have covid die any beds. This is no joke we can’t do anything but comfort care. You can’t die with your family watch the last video and wake up get vaccinated stop the madness Trump got his. It’s mostly black people so they don’t care. When this changes it will get better when all people will care. 650,000 beautiful lives are gone because of politics and division.
Politicians almost always act in their own electoral interest. This sounds bad except that much of the time that means that they are acting in the self-interest of the people who voted for them, representing the views of the majority of their constituents. It is rare that a politician acts against his own self-interest—but then again, Donald Trump is a rare breed of politician. No politician has made it a habit of acting against his own electoral interest like Donald Trump.
Trump and many of his Republican colleagues have allowed a virulent anti-vaccine/anti-masking/anti-social distancing campaign to spread among their voters, reinforced by Fox News. The campaign gained strength just in time for the emergence of a new and more contagious COVID variant: the Delta variant. Polling has shown that the anti-vaccine message is especially popular among Republicans. Kaiser Family Foundation data indicate that Republicans are the group most likely to say they will “definitely not” get a vaccine:
A total of 17 of the 18 states that voted for Trump in the 2020 election have the lowest vaccination rates. The exception was Georgia which went for Biden by a very small margin.
But in recent weeks some Republican leaders have been changing their tune. Right-wing stalwarts like Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the House Republican whip, just got vaccinated publicly. This move is in contrast to former President Trump and First Lady Melania who got vaccinated before leaving the White House without making a public appearance out of it and without urging their supporters to do the same. The very conservative governor of Alabama held a press conference to admonish her constituents to get vaccinated. Appearing every bit the irritated grandmother talking to teenagers she said:
“It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down. I’ve done all I know how to do. I can encourage you to do something but I can’t make you take care of yourself.”
