Last summer, as Democrats and public health officials promoted safe, free, and effective vaccines as a way to end the pandemic, several prominent Republicans concocted a strange, new conspiracy theory. As some in the GOP saw it, Democrats said they wanted to end the pandemic, but that was merely a ruse.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, for example, published a tweet complaining about mask policies, saying it had been “conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.” Soon after, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn added, “The left likes lockdowns because it gives them control. They would like to have a permanent pandemic.”
All of this was, of course, demonstrably ridiculous. If the left wanted the pandemic to last indefinitely, it wouldn’t advocate for policies that would end the pandemic faster.
Six months later, as Democratic governors start rolling back and loosening Covid restrictions, common sense suggests Republicans would be delighted. Instead, much of the GOP is complaining that Democrats are somehow insincere about their own policies.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered floor remarks yesterday, rebuking Democrats, not for scaling back Covid restrictions, but for scaling back Covid restrictions for the wrong reasons.
“Now, obviously, the scientific facts have not changed in the last few weeks…. The only science that’s changed in the last two weeks is the political science. The only data that’s changed in the last two weeks is Democrats’ polling data.”
As a quantitative matter, the Kentucky Republican is clearly wrong. Two weeks ago, according to The New York Times’ tally, the daily national average for new infections was over 425,000. Now, it’s about 155,000. Hospitalization numbers have also improved dramatically.








