Several House Republicans have compared the efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible to the practices Nazi Germany. Many have spread baseless conspiracy theories about the vaccinations and government efforts to promote them. When asked by CNN 217 of 217 House Democrats replied that they have been vaccinated. However, only 95 of 211 House Republicans they had taken the shots. Some stubbornly claim that they have not received a vaccine and have no intention to do so, but 97 House Republicans would not reveal to CNN whether or not they have been vaccinated. They are essentially telling reporters, “It’s none of your business” and indicating that they have no responsibility to model good behavior for their constituents.
Now it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is going on here. I will bet good money that the vast majority are fully vaccinated, but don’t want their constitutes, who view getting the shots as helping the Biden administration, to know that they are traitors to that cause. Evidently, it is okay for their constituents to play Russian roulette with the deadly virus and not encourage them to do otherwise with their example, but they selfishly aren’t up to taking the same risk themselves.
However, everything we do or don’t do has consequences in life, and this situation should be no different. As Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi has the prerogative of setting up the rules that govern conduct in the House of Representatives. She should mandate that those House members and staffers who are not vaccinated will have to wear masks when on the House floor. This is not an unreasonable step to take. It follows CDC guidance that those who are not vaccinated should wear masks indoors when many other people are present.
The Sergeant at Arms could be given the directive not to let anyone enter the House chamber without a mask unless they provide proof of vaccination. He could also be given instructions to remove from the House floor any individual who should be wearing a mask but has taken it off.
Republican House members who are are afraid to reveal if they have been vaccinated or not will have a choice, they can either wear a mask the entire time that they spend in the House chamber, which admittedly won’t be much fun, or they can stop their charades and admit that they have been vaccinated if that is indeed the case. Those who have not been vaccinated will be stuck wearing a mask for the foreseeable future. I certainly have no problem whatsoever with that.
The Speaker should take this step because it will not only help to decrease the level of hypocrisy running rampant in the Republican ranks, but more importantly, it will make everyone doing the business of the House safer and more secure.
Cajun 7/22/21
OT, but I just have to say this.
Joe Biden is a hero!!
God bless his courage in his determination to get the US out of Afghanistan.
And damn most of the (over-militarized, IMO) corporate media for criticizing him on this.
And the rightwingers are just total hypocrites, as usual, with nothing to contribute.
The one weak point is our lack of prep for getting the 80,000 or so Afghans who helped us, safely out of the country and into the US or another ally nation as refugees.
Hopefully, that still can be accomplished.
But Biden is showing the most guts he has shown so far by sticking to his guns on this issue.
The US cannot endure as an empire. We’ve got to crank DOWN some of our military engagements around the globe, and focus on issues of international need.
The war started with the A-hole GWBush and the rotten neocons, and was a colossal mistake from the get-go.
We went in to get Bin Laden, and we failed (we got him in Pakistan a decade years later), but stayed in the country anyway.
Good for Joe!
This is what profiles in Courage is all about.
I am unsure how one “handles” those seemingly gone berserk with false memes, anti democratic actions, those whom ignore their sworn oaths of office and act solely and completely in extremist partisan fashion.
The Democrats seem to refuse to see that attempts at bipartisan politics simply do not work on these fascist appearing republicans. Since McConnell arbitrarily refused to hear Obama nominees, which, because Democrats refused to actively fight this illegality, resulted in a packed Federal Court system and an extremely biased Supreme Court.
Biden is wedded to the past when we need an active and endless appeal to the public and court battles , including increasing the number of justices and ending the filibuster.
You nailed it.