Events have proven that vaccination is not the be-all and end-all against the Virus. We need rapid tests and PCR tests to be widely available. We need N95-type masks, not cloth masks, to be widely available. But vaccination remains far and away the most powerful tool in our arsenal against the Virus, And in the right circumstances, it’s possible to achieve > 90% vaccination against the Virus, even in the United States. Roughly 90% of Americans over age 65 are vaccinated. Where there are enforced mandates in the U.S., for public employees, for students and faculty, there is vaccination well over 90%.
As with Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, red states with Republican governors may be a lost cause in the future we can see for 90% vaccination. But there’s no reason why we couldn’t have > 90% vaccination in Blue States with Democratic governors. One-third of the U.S. population lives in Blue States with Democratic governors. California is more than 10% of the U.S. population all by itself. A huge part of the damage being caused by the Virus is the overwhelming of system capacity during the spike that we’re seeing right now, with hospitals being full. We could stop this in the Blue States with Democratic governors with > 90% vaccination in the Blue States with Democratic governors. And if we could stop it in the Blue States with Democratic governors, it would help everybody, because doctors and nurses can travel from the Blue States, and some patients can travel to the Blue States. What’s killing us the most is when there’s an overwhelming of system capacity everywhere at once.
When the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s private sector vaccine mandate, the core of their argument was “federalism.” The federal government does not have the power to do this, the Supreme Court said. Only the states have the power to do this. So let the Democratic governors in the Blue States do this.
You can easily see who the Blue States with Democratic governors are by going to the Wikipedia page for “Cook Partisan Voting Index,” looking at states, sorting by Cook PVI. Let’s be “conservative” and say that to be a Blue State, your Cook PVI has to be at least D+3, you’re at least three points more Democratic than the country as a whole.
Below are the Blue States with Democratic governors, in descending order by percentage of U.S. population. Why can’t we do this? Why can’t Biden and national Democrats press the Democratic governors in Blue States to do this? When it comes to redistricting, national Democrats have plenty of influence over Democratic officials in Blue States. Biden and national Democrats have more influence over Democratic governors in Blue States than they do over Manchin and Sinema. Why are we barking up the wrong tree? Biden’s top campaign promise to voters was rescuing America from the Virus. Rescuing America from the Virus will do more to save Democrats in November than jerking around with Manchin and Sinema.
And this would be a great precedent for other needed reforms in America. If we could hold national Democrats accountable for what Democratic governors in Blue States do, we could end mass incarceration, get rid of abuser cops, end the War on Drugs, aggressively confront climate change, and organize the unorganized in states covering one-third of the U.S. population. Wouldn’t that be more useful than an endless jerkaround with Manchin and Sinema? Aren’t you tired of hearing about Manchin and Sinema? Jerking around with Manchin and Sinema is not going to save Democrats in November. Rescuing America from the Virus will save Democrats in November.
Blue w/D gov. | % of U.S. pop. | Cook PVI
California 11.80%. D+14
New York 6.03% D+10
Illinois 3.82% D+7
New Jersey 2.77% D+6
Washington 2.30% D+8
Colorado 1.72% D+3
Oregon 1.26% D+6
Connecticut 1.08% D+7
New Mexico 0.63% D+3
Hawaii 0.44% D+15
Rhode Island 0.33% D+8
Delaware 0.30% D+6
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Total: 32.48%
Sunday, Jan 16, 2022 · 3:47:24 PM +00:00
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Robert Naiman
Some respondents didn’t seem to get the point that I was talking about Democratic governors in **Blue States**, where there isn’t an obvious electoral or political excuse for why Democratic governors could not do this. I was not talking about WI [R+2] or KY [R+16], which are not Blue States, or even Maine, which is just barely Blue with a Cook PVI of D+1. So I updated the table at the end of the diary with the Cook PVI of each state that I was talking about, to underline the point that we are talking about Blue States, not red states or purple states, not swing states.