Abbot in TX might just be blustering and acting out to make people forget about people freezing to death in their homes over the state’s mismanagement of the power grid. But DeSantis seems to be making a bet that Pandemic stupidity will still be the driver in the 2024 Republican Presidential primary in 2024. That seems like a really bad bet. And in the meantime he is painting himself as a heartless murderer a year before his re-election campaign. I live in FL, and viewed up close, DeSantis seems like a smart guy but also a ham-fisted bully with a mean-little-kid temperament, whose political instincts are nearly always wrong. He is busy digging himself a hole and I think he’ll lose the governorship next year. Biden is inviting him down that path.
Honestly... I am not sure I agree on the politics. I am in a swing state and I listened to your pod on Thursday on messaging. I don't think messaging on big policy is resonating because no one locally is talking about anything but COVID. It is all consuming and the only thing they talk about.
It's also not black and white on how people who voted for Biden feel about this. In Georgia, we have 159 counties who mostly run the school systems. Last year, you would have one county virtual next to a neighboring county who had no pandemic rules and you saw their kids having a great school year with learning and homecoming dances and proms on Facebook... and similar COVID outcomes on a per capita county level. It felt like cognitive dissonance sometimes. It is hard for people living their day-to-day lives to let that feeling from last year go, even if Delta changes that. The result is not that people think the Republican counties are right, but everyone in government, regardless of both parties, is wrong. I think focusing on DeSantis being a dick does not make people feel better about Democrats.
I think Jen Psaki is doing a good job of being fact based, but her messages get droned out by Twitter Doctors and Rochelle Walensky who talk in level of certainty that they don't have and makes people suspect this far into it. Based on last year, it is just as likely that schools that have mask mandates will have as many quarantines as schools that don't. The CDC MMWR in May on school transmission showed that student mask policies were statistically insignificant. I think when people talk about COVID issues, even scientists, they need more humility.
Before anyone accuses me of being a COVID denialist, I have a 5 year old who wears a mask to school. My comment is just on the politics and what I see in suburban people who switched to vote to Biden. If I were Biden, I would start sending out people from the WH Task Force to talk about it in a more nuanced way to target people who are throwing up their hands at everyone. I think on a pod you did in December on video ads, you commented that you were surprised that hitting Trump on COVID in swing states was not as effective as you guessed. I think this still holds.
I am totally with you on your Air Cover point. More Biden giving localities cover on vaccines is effective.
I am really glad to see this push back. I feel like the tide is turning against these governors a bit. They can hardly claim that their states are successful in protecting their citizens, since COVID is raging in their states. It doesn't help that their positions making demands of businesses (no mandates) and overriding local control seem to be the polar opposite of traditional conservative positions.
It would be better to focus on Abbot's (and DeSantis) for opposing vaccine mandates. Vaccines really prevent the spread of disease and save lives of the vaccinated and of the people the vaccinated person does not infect. Masks probably are a helpful, low cost way for vaccinated people to reduce the risk of transmitting the disease, and a nice gesture to tell other people you don't what them to get sick, but ultimately NOT a big deal. I'm a little concerned that many jurisdictions that jumped to impose masking mandates have been slow to impose vaccination mandates for public spaces and employees. Let's not let the good be the enemy of the better.
Abbot in TX might just be blustering and acting out to make people forget about people freezing to death in their homes over the state’s mismanagement of the power grid. But DeSantis seems to be making a bet that Pandemic stupidity will still be the driver in the 2024 Republican Presidential primary in 2024. That seems like a really bad bet. And in the meantime he is painting himself as a heartless murderer a year before his re-election campaign. I live in FL, and viewed up close, DeSantis seems like a smart guy but also a ham-fisted bully with a mean-little-kid temperament, whose political instincts are nearly always wrong. He is busy digging himself a hole and I think he’ll lose the governorship next year. Biden is inviting him down that path.
Honestly... I am not sure I agree on the politics. I am in a swing state and I listened to your pod on Thursday on messaging. I don't think messaging on big policy is resonating because no one locally is talking about anything but COVID. It is all consuming and the only thing they talk about.
It's also not black and white on how people who voted for Biden feel about this. In Georgia, we have 159 counties who mostly run the school systems. Last year, you would have one county virtual next to a neighboring county who had no pandemic rules and you saw their kids having a great school year with learning and homecoming dances and proms on Facebook... and similar COVID outcomes on a per capita county level. It felt like cognitive dissonance sometimes. It is hard for people living their day-to-day lives to let that feeling from last year go, even if Delta changes that. The result is not that people think the Republican counties are right, but everyone in government, regardless of both parties, is wrong. I think focusing on DeSantis being a dick does not make people feel better about Democrats.
I think Jen Psaki is doing a good job of being fact based, but her messages get droned out by Twitter Doctors and Rochelle Walensky who talk in level of certainty that they don't have and makes people suspect this far into it. Based on last year, it is just as likely that schools that have mask mandates will have as many quarantines as schools that don't. The CDC MMWR in May on school transmission showed that student mask policies were statistically insignificant. I think when people talk about COVID issues, even scientists, they need more humility.
Before anyone accuses me of being a COVID denialist, I have a 5 year old who wears a mask to school. My comment is just on the politics and what I see in suburban people who switched to vote to Biden. If I were Biden, I would start sending out people from the WH Task Force to talk about it in a more nuanced way to target people who are throwing up their hands at everyone. I think on a pod you did in December on video ads, you commented that you were surprised that hitting Trump on COVID in swing states was not as effective as you guessed. I think this still holds.
I am totally with you on your Air Cover point. More Biden giving localities cover on vaccines is effective.
What I have been telling my wife!
I am really glad to see this push back. I feel like the tide is turning against these governors a bit. They can hardly claim that their states are successful in protecting their citizens, since COVID is raging in their states. It doesn't help that their positions making demands of businesses (no mandates) and overriding local control seem to be the polar opposite of traditional conservative positions.
It would be better to focus on Abbot's (and DeSantis) for opposing vaccine mandates. Vaccines really prevent the spread of disease and save lives of the vaccinated and of the people the vaccinated person does not infect. Masks probably are a helpful, low cost way for vaccinated people to reduce the risk of transmitting the disease, and a nice gesture to tell other people you don't what them to get sick, but ultimately NOT a big deal. I'm a little concerned that many jurisdictions that jumped to impose masking mandates have been slow to impose vaccination mandates for public spaces and employees. Let's not let the good be the enemy of the better.