The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
Unfortunately, Barack Obama was wrong when he blamed pundits for trying “to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states.”
“There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America,” the future 44th president contended at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, seeking to make a case that unifying attitudes often transcended partisan lines.
The premise and the promise of that speech helped create the career that four years later took Obama to the White House. But it likely wasn’t true then, and it certainly isn’t true now, as a country already split electorally has shown those divisions reflected in more and more areas of national life.
The chasm between Democrats and Republicans over how best to fight the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic is endangering the nation’s well-being as perhaps nothing since slavery split the union and caused the Civil War. It is forcing a frustrated President Joe Biden, whose administration has made vaccinations a priority in seeking to beat the pandemic, to consider extraordinary measures like withholding federal funds to force greater compliance.
In blue states such as New Jersey, California and Illinois, Democratic governors have acted to increase vaccinations and require mask wearing in schools. The Pentagon ordered all members of the military to get shots. Private companies are increasingly requiring employees to get them. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged indoor masks for all students, teachers and others in K-12 schools.
But in red states such as Texas, Florida and South Dakota, politically ambitious Republicans like Govs. Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis and Kristi Noem have not only resisted steps to prevent the spread of the virus, but also sought to keep local school and governmental authorities from taking action.
The strong consensus of medical professionals, admittedly after some bad advice early on, is that vaccination and masking are the best ways to halt the disease and prevent its spread.
Recent studies have shown that virtually all patients being admitted to hospitals with the disease — and those dying from it — have been unvaccinated. There is a correlation between the recent increase in COVID cases and the percentage of unvaccinated people.
Other Republicans, led by former President Donald Trump, say the issue is the right of individuals to protect themselves. But in fact, much of this is about politics — and the premature start of the battle to become the next president.
It mirrors the partisan divide over who is getting COVID shots and who is resisting them. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed 33 percent of Republicans do not plan to get shots, compared with just 5 percent of Democrats.
That suggests it won’t hurt Republican hopefuls to oppose mandatory shots and masks. Polls show the recent upsurge has weakened Biden’s approval numbers.
Divisions between states have always existed. In recent years, Republican state attorneys general have regularly sued Democratic national administrations, and Democrats have sued Republicans.
But it’s hard to recall a time in recent memory that those divisions have so profoundly affected the nation’s well-being.
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