The unvaccinated are dying. Blame Biden
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
The more unvaccinated people get sick, the better for the GOP. It proves Biden is weak.
Watch Biden beg.
Fox & Friends hosts say it with snark and a sneer: COVID is here and growing again. They shake their heads with disdain; Biden said he would "shut down the virus." Ha!
I watch just enough Fox News to know what they are saying and how they are saying it. The narrative is that Biden is trying to get you to wear masks, and you refuse to listen or be bullied by him. He is trying to get you to get vaccinated and you refuse to knuckle under. On their website, they write:
Biden’s warning comes almost a year into his presidency after repeating many times on the campaign trail that he was the candidate who would "shut down the virus" and blaming former President Trump for his "ineptitude" in slowing the spread.
The COVID vaccines were developed during Trump's term under Operation Warp Speed, which he initiated.
MAGA world is claiming that the water for the horse is there because of Trump, proof of his competence. Biden cannot get the horse to drink, proof of Biden's incompetence.
The hypocrisy is monumental, but there is a deeper psychology at work. The refusal of Trump voters to get vaccinated is, in fact, a failure. COVID is still here. Biden is visibly frustrated. Worse, he is a supplicant. He wants something MAGA is refusing to grant. That puts MAGA world in the power position.
All of us have watched others in frustrating situations, for example a guy pulling on the starter rope when the small engine won't start. We have seen a driver spinning wheels of a car stuck in snow. We have seen parents who cannot stop a child's tantrum. Watching, we feel two emotions simultaneously. First a recognition that the person is not at fault, not really. And second, a sense that if they just did something better or different they could solve that problem. Maybe the person should be adjusting the engine's choke, should be rocking the car back and forth, or should doing something--anything--differently to calm the child.
Fox quotes Biden, with all the awkwardness of his phrasing preserved:
[COVID is] here now and it’s spreading and it’s going to increase. For unvaccinated we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death if you’re unvaccinated for themselves, their families, and the hospitals they will soon overwhelm. But, there’s good news, If you’re vaccinated and have your booster shot you’re protected from severe illness and death.
The denoted message is one of Biden doing his job, encouraging vaccinations. The deeper message is one of his helplessness. He cannot convince Trump supporters to vaccinate.
Don't we see that MAGA vaccine resisters are doing this to themselves? That it is their fault so many people are spreading COVID and getting ill?
Not entirely, and maybe not at all. Football coaches get fired because the team's quarterback threw an interception and the team lost out on being in the title game. We look at results, not causes.
Fox and MAGA world have positioned resistance to Biden's vaccinations as a matter of sacrifice and conscience, rather like a hunger strike. The self-imposed suffering is proof of sincerity. They are the patriots here.
But Biden is offering cool, refreshing water bringing health to the horse. Surely, Biden should be the good guy in this narrative. It is not working out that way. The vaccinated and COVID compliant have grown tired of virus protocols. We want it over. To the third of the country that is MAGA world, Biden is the guy who is abusing the child by trying to restrain it, making the tantrum worse. He is the bad guy. Or the stupid guy digging the tire wheels deeper into the snow.
Is it logical or fair to blame Biden for not being able to persuade the horse to drink? No. But the MAGA tactic of making Biden look pathetic in his helplessness is good politics. People are dying at a rate that a great many Americans seem to consider acceptable, about 1% of the people over age 65. It is a value judgement. I am not totally surprised. I used to be young once and remember thinking that people age 72 were pretty much used up and surely ready to die. People my age vote, but we don't matter as much to the young as we think we do. We are a burden. Saving our lives just isn't worth the hassle of inconveniencing the young and healthy.
That is the MAGA position. I am dismayed by it, but I am not sure they are wrong on the politics of it.