Opinion by
Jennifer Rubin
Columnist
Today at 10:30 a.m. EDT
We are supposed to avoid questioning our political opponents’ motives. We are supposed to credit them with loving the United States as much as we do. We are supposed to assume they are patriotic and rational.
But what if a high percentage of Republicans care more about destroying a Democratic president than avoiding a debt debacle? What if they care more about conjuring up fear of “tyranny” than protecting the lives of children? What if they care more about returning their cult leader to power than they do preserving the sanctity of elections?
The gap in vaccination rates tells us plenty about the millions of Americans who no longer seem inclined to protect themselves, their own kids or their communities because they have been induced to believe they are experiencing an existential threat to their freedom. The latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that “more than seven in ten U.S. adults (72%) now report being at least partially vaccinated, with the surge in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths due to the Delta variant being the main motivator.” In addition, “The largest increases in vaccine uptake between July and September were among Hispanic adults and those ages 18-29, and similar shares of adults now report being vaccinated across racial and ethnic groups (71% of White adults, 70% of Black adults, and 73% of Hispanic adults).”[good quotes x 2-sm]
Yet two significant groups, despite the delta variant, stubbornly trail the rest of the country. Only 62 percent of White evangelicals and 58 percent of Republicans are vaccinated. Republicans also overwhelmingly believe nonsense perpetrated by right-wing media. The Kaiser poll reports that while Democrats largely blame people who refuse to be vaccinated and to take other precautions for the current surge in cases, Republicans are “most likely to view immigrants and tourists bringing the disease into the U.S. as a major reason for the surge.”
And while most Americans do support vaccine mandates for health-care workers (62 percent), teachers (58 percent), federal government employees (55 percent), college students (55 percent) and state and local government employees (54 percent), most Republicans object to such lifesaving measures. As vaccination rates tick up in areas with high numbers of deaths and hospitalizations, it seems only extreme fear will break through the fog of anti-vaccine propaganda.
And it’s not just the pandemic. MAGA cult-followers and right-wing media also pose a fundamental challenge to our democracy by deliberately sabotaging the economy and refusing to hold responsible those behind the violent insurrection at the Capitol. But before people give up hope, there are several measures that can address the threat posed by irrational, self-destructive forces.
First, the media can stop enabling Republicans by retiring the pretense that the GOP is a normal, credible and patriotic party. Consider the framing of questions that so many in the White House press corps have adopted. If the president’s plans are so popular, why can’t he get Congress to go along? (Um, because they operate in the right-wing media bubble and fear his plans might deliver for ordinary Americans?) Why has the White House failed to get everyone vaccinated? (Because MAGA leaders are sabotaging vaccine mandates and right-wing media hosts shovel disinformation into their viewers’ laps?) Why is the president incapable of unifying the country? (Because Republicans refuse to put country above party?) The entire assumption that President Biden is a failure because he cannot get unreasonable Republicans to become rational is misguided.
The media’s obligation is not simply to record what Republicans say, but to inform Americans if what they are saying is demonstrably false. It is not to decry “stalemate” or “dysfunction,” but to explain which party is causing it.
In the context of ongoing voter suppression, media coverage has generally been unclear and unenlightening. The voting restrictions are not “strict”; they are designed to keep people from casting ballots. The entire notion of “voter security” is a canard; there was no demonstrable fraud in 2020 and many of the measures passed by Republicans (e.g., curtailing early voting) have nothing to do with security. Language matters, and the use of deceptively neutral descriptions (“tighten voting rules”) benefits the party seeking to undermine democracy.
Second, Democrats must project a greater sense of urgency about the fate of our democracy. They cannot rally their base and keep disaffected Republicans on board if they allow a senator or two to prioritize the filibuster over preserving our democracy. The White House must unequivocally condemn Republicans for unanimously refusing to even debate voting rights bills and for unanimously opposing a measure that would preserve the treasury’s credit standing. Being deferential to politicians who operate in bad faith is no way to mobilize the electorate.
Finally, it is time to reconsider not merely reform or elimination of the filibuster but structural defects throughout our constitutional system that, for example, deprives the residents of Washington, D.C. of the right to vote. It is untenable for a minority-elected president and a Senate representing a minority of the population to stack the Supreme Court with “partisan hacks” enjoying lifetime tenure.
We are, to borrow words from Abraham Lincoln, badly in need of “a new birth of freedom … [so] that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” That requires reform of every branch of government (e.g., term limits for judges, restraints on executive power, a major reform of the filibuster). It also requires broadening access to the ballot and preventing partisan attempts to reverse election results.
Our economy, democracy and lives are imperiled by a party that has transformed protections for minority rights into tyranny of an irrational, anti-democratic minority. The rest of us cannot afford the luxury of inaction.
Jennifer Rubin
Columnist
Today at 10:30 a.m. EDT
We are supposed to avoid questioning our political opponents’ motives. We are supposed to credit them with loving the United States as much as we do. We are supposed to assume they are patriotic and rational.
But what if a high percentage of Republicans care more about destroying a Democratic president than avoiding a debt debacle? What if they care more about conjuring up fear of “tyranny” than protecting the lives of children? What if they care more about returning their cult leader to power than they do preserving the sanctity of elections?
The gap in vaccination rates tells us plenty about the millions of Americans who no longer seem inclined to protect themselves, their own kids or their communities because they have been induced to believe they are experiencing an existential threat to their freedom. The latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that “more than seven in ten U.S. adults (72%) now report being at least partially vaccinated, with the surge in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths due to the Delta variant being the main motivator.” In addition, “The largest increases in vaccine uptake between July and September were among Hispanic adults and those ages 18-29, and similar shares of adults now report being vaccinated across racial and ethnic groups (71% of White adults, 70% of Black adults, and 73% of Hispanic adults).”[good quotes x 2-sm]
Yet two significant groups, despite the delta variant, stubbornly trail the rest of the country. Only 62 percent of White evangelicals and 58 percent of Republicans are vaccinated. Republicans also overwhelmingly believe nonsense perpetrated by right-wing media. The Kaiser poll reports that while Democrats largely blame people who refuse to be vaccinated and to take other precautions for the current surge in cases, Republicans are “most likely to view immigrants and tourists bringing the disease into the U.S. as a major reason for the surge.”
And while most Americans do support vaccine mandates for health-care workers (62 percent), teachers (58 percent), federal government employees (55 percent), college students (55 percent) and state and local government employees (54 percent), most Republicans object to such lifesaving measures. As vaccination rates tick up in areas with high numbers of deaths and hospitalizations, it seems only extreme fear will break through the fog of anti-vaccine propaganda.
And it’s not just the pandemic. MAGA cult-followers and right-wing media also pose a fundamental challenge to our democracy by deliberately sabotaging the economy and refusing to hold responsible those behind the violent insurrection at the Capitol. But before people give up hope, there are several measures that can address the threat posed by irrational, self-destructive forces.
First, the media can stop enabling Republicans by retiring the pretense that the GOP is a normal, credible and patriotic party. Consider the framing of questions that so many in the White House press corps have adopted. If the president’s plans are so popular, why can’t he get Congress to go along? (Um, because they operate in the right-wing media bubble and fear his plans might deliver for ordinary Americans?) Why has the White House failed to get everyone vaccinated? (Because MAGA leaders are sabotaging vaccine mandates and right-wing media hosts shovel disinformation into their viewers’ laps?) Why is the president incapable of unifying the country? (Because Republicans refuse to put country above party?) The entire assumption that President Biden is a failure because he cannot get unreasonable Republicans to become rational is misguided.
The media’s obligation is not simply to record what Republicans say, but to inform Americans if what they are saying is demonstrably false. It is not to decry “stalemate” or “dysfunction,” but to explain which party is causing it.
In the context of ongoing voter suppression, media coverage has generally been unclear and unenlightening. The voting restrictions are not “strict”; they are designed to keep people from casting ballots. The entire notion of “voter security” is a canard; there was no demonstrable fraud in 2020 and many of the measures passed by Republicans (e.g., curtailing early voting) have nothing to do with security. Language matters, and the use of deceptively neutral descriptions (“tighten voting rules”) benefits the party seeking to undermine democracy.
Second, Democrats must project a greater sense of urgency about the fate of our democracy. They cannot rally their base and keep disaffected Republicans on board if they allow a senator or two to prioritize the filibuster over preserving our democracy. The White House must unequivocally condemn Republicans for unanimously refusing to even debate voting rights bills and for unanimously opposing a measure that would preserve the treasury’s credit standing. Being deferential to politicians who operate in bad faith is no way to mobilize the electorate.
Finally, it is time to reconsider not merely reform or elimination of the filibuster but structural defects throughout our constitutional system that, for example, deprives the residents of Washington, D.C. of the right to vote. It is untenable for a minority-elected president and a Senate representing a minority of the population to stack the Supreme Court with “partisan hacks” enjoying lifetime tenure.
We are, to borrow words from Abraham Lincoln, badly in need of “a new birth of freedom … [so] that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” That requires reform of every branch of government (e.g., term limits for judges, restraints on executive power, a major reform of the filibuster). It also requires broadening access to the ballot and preventing partisan attempts to reverse election results.
Our economy, democracy and lives are imperiled by a party that has transformed protections for minority rights into tyranny of an irrational, anti-democratic minority. The rest of us cannot afford the luxury of inaction.
