Democrats Looking to Bug Out of the War on COVID? [Updated]

It has been clear for a while now that COVID masks are the MAGA hat equivalent for certain kinds of Progressives who march under the banner of “COVID-Zero” (which means no relaxation of the lockdown mandates until COVID no longer exists, or in other words, never) because they have been conditioned by 50 years of liberalism to expect the government to deliver a zero-risk world. So although polls show even a majority of Democratic voters want the madness to end, the noisy progressives who run the Democratic Party can’t give it up. So Biden is stuck, though there is at least a 50% chance that he’ll use his State of the Union speech Tuesday night to declare an end to COVID.

A Democratic strategy firm, Impact Research, has circulated a memo recommending that Democrats declare victory on COVID and return to normal—or else get wiped out at the polls in November. The complete document is posted below, but here are some highlights:

Declare the crisis phase of COVID over and push for feeling and acting more normal. . .

Recognize that people are “worn out” and feeling real harm from the years- long restrictions and take their side. Most Americans have personally moved out of crisis mode. Twice as many voters are now more concerned about COVID’s effect on the economy (49%) than about someone in their family or someone they know becoming infected with the coronavirus (24%). Two-thirds of parents and 80% of teachers say the pandemic caused learning loss, and voters are overwhelmingly more worried about learning loss than kids getting COVID Six in ten Americans describe themselves as “worn out” by the pandemic. The more we talk about the threat of COVID and onerously restrict people’s lives because of it, the more we turn them against us and show them we’re out of touch with their daily realities. . .

Don’t set “COVID zero” as the victory condition. Americans also don’t think victory is COVID Zero. They think the virus is here to stay, and 83% say the pandemic will be over when it’s a mild illness like the flu rather than COVID being completely gone, and 55% prefer that COVID should be treated as an endemic disease. . .

Stop talking about restrictions and the unknown future ahead. If we focus on how bad things still are and how much worse they could get, we set Democrats up as failures unable to navigate us through this. When 99% of Americans can get vaccinated, we cause more harm than we prevent with voters by going into our third year talking about restrictions. And, if Democrats continue to hold a posture that prioritizes COVID precautions over learning how to live in a world where COVID exists, but does not dominate, they risk paying dearly for it in
November.

But if you really want confirmation that Democrats want out of the box canyon of their own paranoia and authoritarianism, check out how the issue was handled on Saturday Night Live last night:

Update chasers:

How conveeeenient.

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