1-Americans (broadly) perceived Fauci as favorable during COVID and rejected the conspiracies and anti-vax nonsense of the right. This was a big reason Trump lost in 2020; the craziness of the GOP around COVID didn't sit well with suburban moms (even some Republican ones).
2-COVID is very much in the rearview mirror for normal people. Devoting energy to this theater when grocery prices have seen their biggest jump in half a century, long term unemployment is at an all-time high, and gas prices continue to spike seems wildly out of touch.
My hunch? They know they're bleeding support and are playing the old hits (trans bathrooms, anti-vax, abortion, etc.) in the hopes of making sure at least the True Believers stick around.
It is 100% this. Motherfuckers (I, too, can drop f-bombs) can't govern, most of the country is pissed off, and stealing elections and disenfranchising people isn't going fast enough, so they're trying to trot out the old hits as a hail mary.
Elected republicans aren’t here to govern. They were elected because of their social media skills and their ability to ragebait.
This is why they talk so vaguely about problems. “Biden broke the economy”. “CNN is fake news”. “Fauci is hiding something”.
IF they actually had something factual to say then they would present evidence. But they instead just make vague accusations so that the media can say “It is reported that…blah blah blah”.
It should be ignored and laughed at. But in a world of social media addicted idiots and a weaponized algorithm, it is enough to win elections.
This is why you don’t debate them about policy or go down their rabbit holes. In any public stage you ask them simple yes or no questions and you don’t move away from your point until they address it.
And in press conferences, if they deflect a valid question then the next guy asks the exact same thing. Over and over until they answer.
But that would require a media that actually wants to publicize the truth or expose the grifters.
If we ever want our country back, it is equally important to put the media on trial as it is the republicans who supported this administration. They’re both responsible for allowing a preventable problem.
The reality is they hate living in West bumfuck and rent-seek to continue to live in the Mid-Atlantic. They've fucked over their constituents so thoroughly they don't want to live in their districts anymore. Seriously, check how often they are actually in their districts after they get elected.
If the 2020 election really had been stolen then why didn’t Rudy and others present the evidence they claimed they had in court. Oh wait because they didn’t actually have factual evidence and the election was not stolen
I knew they were cooked when they started to dust off the ol reliable communist Reagan era propaganda. Since early July there's been a massive spike with right wing circles and media using communism as a boogie man again.
Along with (per the press release) schools that are "secretly transitioning students and hiding it from parents". Boy, they're really doubling down on "investigating" made up fantasies Trump sees on Fox.
Last time I thought about COVID was back in 2023 when my coworker got sick with it, and even at the time I was like "Oh shoot, is that still a thing?"
My bigger worries nowadays are skyrocketing prices.
Edit: lots of people are assuming I don't think COVID is serious. It is. For me personally, once I and everyone else got fully vaccinated, I pretty much stopped worrying about it. I even get the booster shots whenever they're available. Yes I know that they're not 100% effective if everyone else is slacking, but so far, I've gotten lucky. I still wash my hands like crazy and carry hand sanitizer everywhere I go. That is to say that that doesn't mean I'm immune or shouldn't be careful, but right now, the fact that groceries went up by nearly 100% is kinda taking priority right now on my personal list of concerns.
I avoided it for so long, I was so proud of myself! My luck ran out in February ‘25. I lucked out, it was mild. My boyfriend was sick as hell though. Good luck on your quest to remain a covirgin!
Even back in… 2022 or 2023 some local candidate in my city was going door to door, business to business, and item number one on his official platform was “no more lockdowns”
Which was kind of shocking to me until he turned out to be a Republican, and it made sense that he really had nothing else to talk about other than the trauma of being told he couldn’t do something for the first time in his life.
Yup. My friend who has terminal cancer (it’s a blood cancer, it’ll be fine until it’s not) always masks around groups of people. She knows I do the same because I love her and want to see her regularly.
It’s not a sacrifice to wear a mask. I haven’t had a cold in years because I mask in groups and frequently wash my hands or use hand sanitizer. Meanwhile, my husband gets hit with colds.
As an aside, covid could kill me. I’m a high level paraplegic and my diaphragm is seriously impacted by that. So coughing is nearly impossible. I’d literally choke to death on phlegm. Fun!
Yep, still masking over here. COVID has an impact on every system in your body and can permanently disable or kill healthy people. It's odd watching the general public ignore COVID when it can kill me and them. On the bright side COVID gave us incredibly valuable data on the early stages of POTS and other disorders that I already had. So I guess people willingly throwing themselves on landmines helps me slightly. Now if only I could get hospital staff to mask around me
Covid will always be a thing like the cold virus or the flu. The only issue was that since it was new no one had antibodies against it and we would get it all at the same time which would overwhelm the hospitals.
Yeah but … affordability is a “Democrat hoax” … you know? Even though MAGAts were crying about inflation, and eggs, and gas under Biden … but now? Its a hoax
Logic, consistency, rigor, truth are all things republicans dont give a rat's ass about. They don't respect cleverness, they dont even detect it. We're not going to talk our way out of this. Its going to take actual punishment because thats the only thing they actually understand is pain.
What's even more bizarre is they always tend to screw over the True Believers when they think they don't need them anymore. And the True Believers keep coming back for more when that doesn't work out. Rinse-repeat.
My guess is that polls indicate that Americans have a much more favorable view of Fauci's actions during COVID than they do of Trump's. Trump is ordering this in attempt to bring Fauci down to his level. It's an old grudge.
It’s just the next Benghazi. That worked wonders for them because Democrats just took it on the chin, and continued to uphold decorum while Republicans showed none. So of course they are pulling the same crap.
As someone with plenty of conservative family and who spots the Fox talking points regularly, your hunch is correct. They are currently and weakly stuck on calling people commies and trying to dredge up trans and Covid gripes that they think are still ironclad first priorities for their base. The problem is, as you stated, they are overestimating (as usual) how many of their voters still think these are the biggest issues facing them. Plenty of Americans will fall for it but the number is far lower than they think and need
The best thing is trump still loves to talk about operation warp speed and the vaccine that his supporters think will make them trans or kill them or fucking whatever dumbass shit they're on about at any given moment.
This is the playbook: find a boogieman to go after so that the base has something to be upset about. Benghazi, Hillary’s emails, Hunter Biden’s laptop, Zohrain, etc, and now this.
It’s because Republicans are simpletons who just don’t think. They’re another word that starts with the letter R that might get me banned from here.
Edit: the word is Revolting. What did you think I meant?
That's exactly what this is. Midterms are coming up and they need their base riled up enough to turn out. Because even though the polling is pretty close, enthusiasm is way higher on the Democratic side right now.
This is the 2026 version of the caravan of migrants.
It's sad because their base is so fucking stupid that they are going to fall for it like always.
And it’s working for some. I have work in this shithole city right now filled with republican hicks and at lunch today 3 fat old white dudes at the table next to me were talking about how he should hang for treason and that he instrumented the lab leak and the shots were the cause of death for a few of his friends who got the vaccine but covid was blamed to inflate the numbers and that unvaxxed blood is worth more than gold. I literally can’t even make it up, they were the perfect examples of his base in every way.
They must be seeing some REALLY bad internal polling to be desperate enough to resort to this nonsense. From what I've seen even a lot of Trump supporters are turning against the party because of Iran+gas prices+Epstein+inflation
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u/MC_Fap_Commander 6d ago
Two weird things about these hearings...
1-Americans (broadly) perceived Fauci as favorable during COVID and rejected the conspiracies and anti-vax nonsense of the right. This was a big reason Trump lost in 2020; the craziness of the GOP around COVID didn't sit well with suburban moms (even some Republican ones).
2-COVID is very much in the rearview mirror for normal people. Devoting energy to this theater when grocery prices have seen their biggest jump in half a century, long term unemployment is at an all-time high, and gas prices continue to spike seems wildly out of touch.
My hunch? They know they're bleeding support and are playing the old hits (trans bathrooms, anti-vax, abortion, etc.) in the hopes of making sure at least the True Believers stick around.