They will tell you who they fear, Rush Limbaugh used to say.
As the 2022 midterms approach, there have been plenty of warning signs for Democrats. The once reliable Latino vote now is evenly split, an electoral disaster for Democrats if it holds.
The NY Times played the role of telling Democrats to fear the Latino shift, but doing it in a way the pidgeonholes and denigrates the opposition, as we covered in early July, NY Times: Be Afraid Of ‘Far-Right Latinas’ Like Republican Mayra Flores.
There they go again, now telling Democrats to be afraid of parents upset by school closures and mask and vaccine mandates, denigrating them as “single issue” voters. Laura Fagan terms it a “hit piece” on parents:
“The @nytimes is so afraid of parents and how we will vote this November they decided to write a hit piece on us. Great sign.”
The Times article is How Some Parents Changed Their Politics in the Pandemic:
Nearly half of Americans oppose masking and a similar share is against vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, polls show. But what is obscured in those numbers is the intensity with which some parents have embraced these views. While they once described themselves as Republicans or Democrats, they now identify as independents who plan to vote based solely on vaccine policies.Their transformation injects an unpredictable element into November’s midterm elections. Fueled by a sense of righteousness after Covid vaccine and mask mandates ended, many of these parents have become increasingly dogmatic, convinced that unless they act, new mandates will be passed after the midterms.To back up their beliefs, some have organized rallies and disrupted local school board meetings. Others are raising money for anti-mask and anti-vaccine candidates like J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for Senate in Ohio; Reinette Senum, an independent running for governor in California; and Rob Astorino, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in New York.
Sound like a bunch of domestic extremists! Quick, call Merrick Garland, sic the FBI on them. They might vote Republican:
“A lot of Democrats might think these voters are now unreachable, even if they voted for the party recently,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a Democratic political adviser to former President Barack Obama.Nathan Leamer, who worked at the Federal Communications Commission during the Trump administration and is now vice president of public affairs at the firm Targeted Victory, said Republican candidates — some of whom have publicly been against Covid vaccine mandates — were better positioned to attract these voters. He pointed to last year’s surprise win in Virginia of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, after he gained the support of young parents by invoking their frustration over Covid-driven school closures.
The article portrays the parents as anti-vax kooks lured in by Facebook and other online chats where misinformation was shared. In other words, completely writes off their concerns about the severe impact on children from policies kept in place long after it was clear they were both ineffective and causing mental and physical health problems.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
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