11-15-2022, 07:58 AM
(11-15-2022, 01:14 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:(11-14-2022, 07:58 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: galaxy --
Some pols adjust to new political realities and far fewer fail to do so. Figure that some Republican pols set their ideologies to fit Newt Gengrich's "Contract on America" and never budged. It looks as if Gingrich shaped some political trends for much longer than did Donald Trump.
Yes indeed, Gingrich was a powerful and mean neoliberal champion.
Gingrich had at least one failed bid for the Presidency. He had never won any statewide election and was not a military hero; he never held a cabinet post. Until Donald Trump became President with absolutely no reasonable qualifications for any public office, that was overpowering evidence that he was not going to be President.
We could be approaching the end of this Crisis Era, but we need to wait until the 2024 Presidential election to see proof of such. The rise and fall of Donald Trump and the disgrace that he brought to many political figures who should have known better may have a better chance of full manifestation. We have what looks like a one-term President should he have any serious health problems that cannot be fixed with routine medical care. Ron Duce-Santis (get it?) won big in Florida and threw down the gauntlet to anyone who would oppose Trumpism after Trump, including "woke" liberals and anyone not fully in with him. Basically he suggests an America in which everyone defers to the only people who suitably rule us in fact -- the rich and powerful shareholders, executives, and Junker-style corporate farmers. He appeals to the sort of person most likely to support President Trump, basically someone who has little capacity for deferred. To be sure, as the economist John Maynard Keynes put it,
"In the long run we are all dead"
but all in all, those who want to get more gratification in life are wise to push the Grim Reaper away as much as is possible. I basically stayed put during the pandemic until I got my first inoculation and booster, leaving the house largely to get groceries, fill the tank of my car, meet medical appointments, and on occasion get a fast-food meal to break the monotony. I did buy some stuff (including of all things cat food when there was a big shortage locally) on... you can guess where. I steered clear of any place that seemed a likely super-spreader site such as a bar. I relied upon books, TV, recorded music, and the Internet for entertainment.
Go to the beach and get COVID-19? No way!
Covid death rates are higher among Republicans than Democrats, mounting evidence shows
Lower vaccination rates among Republicans could explain the partisan gap, but some researchers say mask use and social distancing were bigger factors.
[color=var(--article-body--date-source--color)]Oct. 6, 2022, 2:10 PM EDT[/color]
[color=var(--article-body--byline--color)]By Aria Bendix[/color]
Covid deaths are unevenly distributed among Republicans and Democrats.
Average excess death rates in Florida and Ohio were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats from March 2020 to December 2021, according to a working paper released last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Excess deaths refers to deaths above what would be anticipated based on historical trends.
A study in June published in Health Affairs similarly found that counties with a Republican majority had a greater share of Covid deaths through October 2021, relative to majority-Democratic counties.
But experts are still puzzling over why these differences exist. Are lower vaccination rates among Republicans responsible? Or did mask use and social distancing guidelines prevent more deaths in counties run by Democrats?
The Yale researchers behind the new working paper say vaccine hesitancy among Republicans may be the biggest culprit.
"In counties where a large share of the population is getting vaccinated, we see a much smaller gap between Republicans and Democrats," said Jacob Wallace, an author of that study and an assistant professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health.
Indeed, his paper found that the partisan gap in the deaths widened from April to December 2021, after all adults became eligible for Covid vaccines. Excess death rates in Florida and Ohio were 153% higher among Republicans than Democrats during that time, the paper showed.
"We really don’t see a big divide until after vaccines became widely available in our two states," Wallace said.
But the June study suggested that Covid vaccine uptake explained just 10% of the partisan gap in the deaths. Those researchers suggested that compliance with other public health measures such as mask use and social distancing was a significant factor.
"Vaccination does play a role in the difference that we’ve observed in excess mortality between red and blue places, but it is not the whole story," said Neil Jay Sehgal, an author of that study and an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.
"When you have less transmission, you have fewer cases and you have less mortality. And you have less transmission in general by instituting protective policies like mask requirements when we had them, or capacity limits in businesses," he added.
[color=var(--article-body-static-heading-color)]Role of vaccine hesitancy[/color]
Both papers come with limitations. The study from Sehgal’s team looked at counties, not individuals, which makes it difficult to determine whether other demographic factors — such as education level, proximity to health care services or the share of older residents — played a role in the trend.
The new Yale paper, by contrast, linked political affiliation to excess Covid deaths at the individual level, but it still used county-level vaccination rates. The research was also limited to two states.
"It may very well be that in Ohio and Florida, because of the nature of Ohioans and Floridians, vaccine uptake may have played a greater role than the country at large," Sehgal said.
NBC News from roughly a month ago.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.