This morning Ed wrote about a Washington Post story highlighting the new trend of Democrats pushing to end mask mandates. A bit later in the day, Politico has also published a piece noting that the sudden pivot on masks appears to be about changing the narrative prior to the 2022 election.
“By the time we’re at the midterms, we’ll hopefully not be wearing these,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), gesturing to his own mask as he walked through the Capitol. “People are, of course, frustrated. We all want to get back to life.”
Many in the party are now coming around to what swing-district lawmakers have privately warned for weeks: that the Biden administration needs to drastically rethink its handling of Covid, particularly in the suburbs. Those vulnerable Democrats worry that ugly clashes over masks, school closings and vaccine mandates will crush them in purple districts this fall. But the current shift may be too little, too late to avoid blowback from voters wearied by pandemic whiplash…
Democrats’ public turnaround on mask mandates is a remarkable twist for the party that’s championed a painstakingly careful — though critics have called it too cautious — approach.
It really is a remarkable twist and the really important point is the reason for it. Not science but pure politics.
