The question GOP critics of Biden’s vaccine policy won’t answer

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It would be an exaggeration to say that every prominent Republican official has condemned President Joe Biden’s new vaccine policy. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, for example, was very complimentary, expressing appreciation for the White House’s approach.

It came a day after the Republican governor created a new vaccine requirement for public sector employees in Green Mountain State.

Scott doesn’t have much company in the contemporary GOP, however. NBC’s subsidiary in Columbia, SC, for example, yesterday reported on South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s response to Biden’s efforts.

“The American dream has become a nightmare under President Biden and the radical Democrats,” McMaster said. “They have declared war on capitalism, thumbed their noses at the Constitution and reinforced our enemies abroad.” In the following tweet, McMaster quoted: “Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the freedom and livelihoods of every South Carolinian.”

Granted, when evaluating the angry reactions, it’s hard to “fight them to the gates of hell,” but McMaster wasn’t the only Republican who looked hysterical in response to the House’s efforts. Blanche to end the pandemic.

Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas, for example, accused the Biden administration of “trying to start a total revolt.” Josh Mandel, a GOP Senate hopeful in Ohio, called on Americans to reject the president’s policies, adding that they “know what to do” when “the Gestapo shows up on your doorstep.”

Mandel’s main rival in Ohio, JD Vance, also called for “mass civil disobedience.”

The question I would like Vance and others like him to answer is simple: How would mass civil disobedience help end the pandemic? To borrow the line of the governor of South Carolina, how would the fight against the vaccine policies of the Biden administration “at the gates of hell” end this public health nightmare?

The answer, of course, is no, and that’s where the problem lies: For far too many people on the right, ending the pandemic is not the primary goal.

Indeed, this is why of all the Republicans who condemned Biden’s policy yesterday, none of them said it would be ineffective in tackling the public health crisis. Instead, they have bypassed the issue of efficiency altogether, because it just isn’t part of their political offensive.

The president and his detractors have two very different types of conversations. Biden’s goal is to end the pandemic and save lives. Its Republican critiques focus on amorphous concepts of “freedom” as defined by conservative ideologues and exploiting political opportunities for partisan ends.

Regarding Covid-19, the public health steps can be reduced to a simple question: will the decision help to end the pandemic or to prolong it? The fact that so many Republicans find this binary dynamic irrelevant helps explain why the United States is still struggling so hard against the crisis.

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