The Unvaccinated are dying.
Unvaccinated people are getting sick and dying. OK.
They made their choice.
COVID may help Democrats get comfortable with negative consequences for foolish behaviors. I haven't heard enough of that from Democrats.
I listened to over 20 Democratic candidates share their messages in New Hampshire and Iowa. All of them had some version of identity group destiny--Biden, too, but Biden the least of them. Identity group destiny means that one's racial, gender, religious, sexual orientation or other characteristics are presumed central to one's perspective and one's social identity. The general thrust of the identity group destiny idea is to diminish personal responsibility. Outcomes are due to which groups one belongs.
Democratic thought leaders represent the ideas and moral sensibilities of highly-educated upper-middle class professionals. There is diversity of race and gender among this group but there is very little diversity of thought. Activists, journalists, pundits, and people in and out of government are part of the same milieu, educated in similar places, mostly living in urban places.
Black voters in South Carolina reminded Democrats that this wasn't where the votes were. It was an electoral wake-up call, but the mindset did not change. The Democratic primary simply chose the least articulate spokesman for that mindset, Joe Biden. The public murder of George Floyd gave a visual image to the idea.
Biden is president but he is not the Democratic thought leader. There isn't one. No Democrat currently voices the ideas needed to bring Democratic messaging back in touch with voters. The educated middle class that increasingly makes up the Democratic electorate is comfortable with ambition and personal striving, both for themselves and their children. They are OK with rigor and accountability. They believe in merit and consequences. Those voters remember--or imagine--that they could have gotten drunk or stoned before college or licensing exams but didn't. They credit this with why they now have a job with benefits. When the alarm clock goes off in the morning, they get up and go to work. They want to be rewarded for that.
COVID vaccinations can help fix Democratic thinking and messaging. Unvaccinated people are spreading the disease, crowding out patients from hospitals, and raising insurance costs. There is reason for vaccinated Democrats to be frustrated with them. But there is nature's compensation. We are watching rough justice. Nature has consequences for people who choose to show the middle finger to Biden and Dr. Fauci. Fly the "Let's go Brandon" flag right into the hospital and morgue.
Joe Manchin complains that some of the Democratic Build Back Better plan is over-coddling Americans. Democratic orthodox thinking dismisses this and him. What's wrong with him? Democrats are failing to read their own electoral room. A great many people think Manchin is right--or partly right or maybe right--in saying that people who get government support money will spend it on drugs or alcohol, and will choose to go deer hunting rather than show up at work. In fact some will. People know that.
Democrats can talk about individual responsibility, and should. Americans will accept Democratic efforts to remediate the effects of prejudices if Democrats also share a belief in personal responsibility. Jessie Jackson did it. He spoke of hard-working people setting their alarms to take the early morning bus to work. They were his heroes. Every person of every identity knows that some people work harder than others and make better choices than others. They make those choices as individuals, not as a group. It isn't tolerating racism to say this. It is respecting people.
Who believes this? A majority of Americans whose votes Democrats need if they want to win elections.