The Mysterious GOP Vaccine Flip
/By Don Varyu
July 26, 2021
Right from the start, every standing member of Trump nation knew the right answer when it came to vaccinations: “NO!”
And that stayed constant until about 10 days ago. Then, mysteriously, a quickly assembled parade of ardent Trump serfs…from House minority whip Steve Scalise (R-Bayou) to Fox News huckster Sean Hannity…suddenly spun on their pitchforks. They inexplicably began urging their followers to take the shots. Whaa? A hundred pundits claimed they really couldn’t figure out what was going on.
There were possible explanations, to be sure. Did those Trump mooks somehow start to believe in science? No.
Did they set aside their ridiculous conspiracy theories—like the one that claimed government agents were going door-to-door to take everyone’s guns and bibles? No—that one still lives.
OK, maybe--just maybe--they finally stopped, shook their heads, and realized they had a responsibility to their fellow Americans to do what was in the common good? Of course they didn’t do that!
All this confusion opens the door for my personal theory—which I actually believe falls somewhere between a possibility and a guarantee. I say that here, as with almost everything related to the GOP, Occam’s razor provides the obvious answer. It all comes down to racism.
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Think back through the long months of the pandemic. Virtually every dreary news story mentioned the fact that the virus was disproportionately striking and killing people of color.
Well, all the Trumpies heard that, too--and it caused them no concern. In fact, silently I think they cheered. This was Mother Nature’s contribution to voter suppression. Long before covens were called in conservative state legislatures, Trump cultists saw this felling of minorities as a sign; a higher power was at work, using the pandemic on behalf of patriotic whites.
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OK,I realize this sounds severe. And of course, no Trumpie would ever admit it. But there’s no question in my mind that this was going on. The Trumpies thought they really didn’t need to worry—as good, sturdy, God-fearing Americans, they believed they were immune. And that belief doubled down when it came to vaccinations. Those who suffered would be the ones who deserved to suffer.
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So, what undid this? All it took was a little bit of data and some personal observations. The data showed that new cases of the deadlier Delta variant were striking unvaccinated souls in states that went overwhelmingly for Trump. And then the first-hand evidence began to come in: “I know four good evangelicals from good families who just got it—and man, they’re really bad off!”
Fears rose as those folks started talking to each other. So they picked up phones and called the people they elected to represent them in D.C. Those elected officials got together, mustered all the empathy they could, and decided, “if those idiots start dying off, they can’t vote for us anymore.”
And making things worse was the vision of their opponents in the next election running ads that accurately state: “he’s the guy who told your cousin not to get the shots—you know, the cousin who caught COVID and died.”
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Voila. This thunderbolt among Republican leaders caused many (but not all) to instantly change their tunes. But those conversions haven't always been easy. The spineless Hannity, who had constantly assured his viewers the whole vaccination thing was nonsense…abruptly said he now believed, “…in the science of vaccination…please take COVID seriously.”
Whoa! Thousands of his fans were having none of that! They roasted him on social media. Consequently, he retreated to full hem-and-haw mode, saying, “it absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated”—but then added that “many” was not the same thing as “most”—and certainly not, “nearly all.” Like i said, spineless.
Why not just hope for the impossible here. The Trump voters realize they've been duped, and many turn away from both right wing media, and Trump himself.
I can dream, can't I?
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