Republican Party’s Covid Politics Harden

“As a new coronavirus wave accelerated by the Delta variant spreads across the United States, many Republican governors have taken sweeping action to combat what they see as an even more urgent danger posed by the pandemic: the threat to personal freedom,” the New York Times reports.

“The actions of Republican governors, some of the leading stewards of the country’s response to the virus, reveal how the politics of the party’s base have hardened when it comes to curbing Covid. As some Republican-led states, including Florida, confront their most serious outbreaks yet even rising death totals are being treated as less politically damaging than imposing coronavirus mandates of almost any stripe.”

Explained Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): “Freedom is good policy and good politics.”