Democrats are in trouble ahead of the 2022 elections, thanks in large part to the incoherent, unnecessarily strict, and needlessly long pandemic restrictions they imposed with all the zeal of Spanish inquisitors. They need an election strategy to downplay their lockdown fanaticism, and they’ve settled on gaslighting voters.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the New York Democrat who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, made this clear after several states run by Democrats belatedly lifted (some) COVID-19 mandates and restrictions this past week. “Democrats’ plan to fight COVID is working — cases are down & vaccines are widely available,” Maloney tweeted. “Now, it’s time to give people their lives back. With science as our guide, we’re ready to start getting back to normal.”
Democrats’ plan to fight COVID is working – cases are down & vaccines are widely available. Now, it’s time to give people their lives back.
With science as our guide, we’re ready to start getting back to normal. https://t.co/ws1VCIIEy2
— Sean Patrick Maloney (@RepSeanMaloney) February 9, 2022
Of course, tens of millions of people were already back to normal, either because they live in red states such as Florida (which did not promote the same lockdown doctrine as states such as Michigan or New York) or because they have been ignoring Democrats’ edicts.
Vaccines are indeed widely available: They have been since April 2021. While Republican-run states began easing restrictions then (or earlier), Democratic states kept them in place. Some even imposed more restrictions late in 2021.
But now, these gracious Democrats are going to “give people their lives back.” In a similar fashion, President Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers has tried to claim that teachers unions were in favor of returning to in-person schooling this whole time.
Maloney wants voters to think Democrats were always trying to return society to normal. All those outdoor mask mandates, business lockdowns, travel restrictions, and playground closures are just a figment of your imagination. You must be misremembering your life!
This is how “gaslighting” works.
Maloney and Democrats will claim that all the other states that lifted restrictions did so dangerously early. Democrats, they will say, are doing it at the right time because of the “science.” But even, then this logic fails. Multiple states run by Democrats, including some that lifted restrictions this week, continue to impose unnecessary pandemic measures in schools, where children are at less risk from the virus than vaccinated adults. Democrats have so generously given adults their lives back, but children, who were always safe, will have to check back in a month or two.
Democrats understand that voters are about to torpedo their congressional majorities in the midterm elections and that COVID-19 is the driving issue. But Maloney and the rest of his party can’t erase the Democratic record on COVID-19 restrictions. Voters aren’t going to ignore what happened over the last two years, no matter how hard Democrats try to convince them to.
