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Comment by vogt | Hacker News Reader

I think the way that you put the approach of both parties sums it up pretty well and is the core of a lot of our systems that appear to be so dysfunctional right now.

OT tangent / rant: COVID is a great example too. GOP? Do nothing. Dems? Take every precaution, or shame on you god damnit. Just six months ago I got a box full of COVID tests I never asked for mailed to my house. They would have been great to receive anytime in, say, 2020. At this point after I’ve been vaccinated and isolated for 2 years it feels like a hollow gesture by someone who felt VERY compelled to spend tax dollars to pad their political “accomplishment” list

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The Federal government is like a huge ship. It has huge weight but any turns take a long time. Quarantines should probably be an enumerated power of the Federal government but it’s too difficult to amend the constitution now.

To be fair, even though Trump disregarded most public health measures he was an advocate of vaccine development and really did grease the skids to make it happen.

In Dec 2020 my left wing friends were expressing fear of a vaccine that Trump developed at "Warp Speed". After Biden was inaugurated anti-vax became a right wing thing. Trump could have done some good using every channel to push people to take "his" vaccine but he choose not to because, I think, he understands that QAnon psychology and knows he would lose the esteem of his Jan 6 army if he did something responsible.

It's like the story of the Church of Scientology where it's believed the leader, David Miscavige is terribly afraid of catching COVID and has driven the staff to take extreme precautions against it, including mandatory vaccinations. He's also told staff to lie about this because he believes the Scientology public is anti-vax and would be driven away if they were honest.

Damn, finally someone else who remembers that in November 2020 liberals were screaming everywhere that the Trump vaccine wasn't safe and that they would never get it.

Not just you, Yahoo News remembers https://news.yahoo.com/kamala-harris-says-she-wont-take-covi... :

Kamela Harris: "But if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it. I’m not taking it."

Mike Pence: "So the fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine, if the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration, I think is unconscionable."

Who would have predicted the political positions just a few months later...

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