The Political Monopoly of Common Sense: Covid-19 Vaccine

How politics determine who claims all the credit for nonpolitical ideas and innovations.

by S4B0T4G3FIRE | November 27, 2021, 8:00 AM EST

The 2016 Presidential Election launched one of the worst political civil wars in United States history. Ever since, Americans have begun abandoning all logic and reason to wholeheartedly support the ideals, whatever they may be, of their respective political parties. Both sides argue that they stand for commonsense, constitutional solutions, but everyone else, not to be fooled, has seen through all of it after witnessing the hypocrisies of both parties come to fruition for many years. Instead of proactively seeking complex solutions and workarounds to major issues like poverty, hunger, healthcare, and racism, Democrats and Republicans alike give in to cowardice and take the easy way out by politicizing commonsense solutions and claiming all the credit. What this means is when an idea, science, technology, or event surfaces, whoever controls the White House can slap that innovation onto their resume, even if it has nothing to do with politics, because it happened on their watch.

Take the COVID-19 Vaccine, for instance. Recovery was never going to be about Americans working harmoniously like the rest of the world was doing. It was always going to be about which political party was in control of the White House when the vaccine was pushed out because that party could abuse it to give the illusion of accomplishment to the media and general public. By that logic, Joe Biden currently sits atop the most successful administration in United States history because the vaccine for the worst pandemic in United States history was mass distributed during his presidency, whereas the negative effects of COVID-19 are attributed to Donald Trump, despite the virus’ unpredictability, uncontrollability, and rapidity in 2020.

To everyone whose judgment is not clouded by these black and white extremes of their respective political parties, however, the true political motives are easily perceived as follow:

“Even though getting vaccinated is the human, commonsense solution to the pandemic, we must politicize it anyway. That way, we can get the other party to oppose it and look stupid. Either way, we win because they will have to join us, making us the heroes, or oppose us, making them the enemies. If they join us, they are admitting that we are right. If they oppose us, then we can pin them as the enemy of America and all of humanity.”

Then, when accused of politicizing the vaccine, politicians take the easy way out again:

“No. This was never a matter of politics. This is a matter of life and death…but we were in control of the White House when the vaccine was administered, to be fair.”

Then, after having successfully monopolized another commonsense solution to which they contributed nothing but politics, they sit back and watch their sinister plan play out as the data starts rolling in:

• Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations rise, particularly in unvaccinated red states” — NBC News, July 2021
• “Democrats: 88% Vaccinated; Republicans: 55% Vaccinated” — NBC News, August 2021
• “Covid Spread Was 8% Lower In Democrat-Led States” — Forbes, October 2021
• “‘Red COVID’? Coronavirus deaths are highest in counties with the largest share of Trump voters” — MarketWatch, November 2021
• “Flu shots uptake is now partisan. It didn’t use to be” — CNN, November 2021
• “In previous years, polls showed a negligible difference in uptake of flu shots between the two parties, and no evidence of a partisan gap.” — Independent, November 2021

A global pandemic affecting over 7.7 billion people was not designed to be politicized, but Democrats have a guilty pleasure in seeing this data surface even though these headlines are scary. Other countries would be shocked and disgusted not only to see “shaming tactics” being used but also to see them actually working. History shows that politics never used to influence vaccinations, yet now they do with the deadliest pandemic in United States history! This is not a coincidence. Now, backed into a corner where they are unable to beat Democrats and unwilling to join them, Republicans would rather take their chances with a life-threatening virus than give in and receive the vaccination that the current administration monopolized. This is a major problem. Obviously, Republicans should still give in to common sense and get the vaccine anyway, but they know they would never hear the end of it in an increasingly divided America where holding your ground is somehow better than admitting you are wrong.

And this would happen regardless of how the 2020 election went. Republicans would be attributing COVID-19 recovery to their own administration, just as Democrats are doing now because it is a great political tactic. “Vaccine-shaming.” It may be just as cowardly, un-American, and inhuman as not getting vaccinated, but it would single-handedly win a debate the majority of the time, and that is all that matters nowadays. Whether these parties like it or not, they are both equally at fault. Not 80/20, not 70/30. They share the fault, 50/50. As the saying goes, “it takes two to tango,” and both parties brought their dancing shoes.

There is one bright side to all of this, however. You could practically solve any problem 50% of the way just by politicizing it. If the media wanted to, they could start releasing headlines like “Republicans tend to drive above the speed limit more than Democrats do.” Let Twitter work its magic for a week, and then Democrats would all start driving slower solely to support their political party and put to shame all Republicans who drive above the speed limit. Do you want to solve the climate crisis? Here is your headline: “Democrats emit fewer emissions than Republicans.” Boom. More than 90% of Democrats just started carpooling or taking a bicycle to work, just to fulfill the prophecy and pin Republicans as “Earth-Killers.” What would you like to fix next?