Replace the "inside-politics” frame with a “pro-democracy” frame

I checked Michigan COVID data today, as I do most Saturdays. The data are revised as county reports are incorporated into state data. Data change to more accurately show when symptoms first appeared, not when the patient took a test or went to the hospital. More changes are done as cause of death is checked. I’m all for the accuracy, though it means many weeks I report that numbers for the last month are revised upward. Which is the case today. Here’s where the weekly peaks in the number of new cases per day now stand. June 27 – 213, with several days that week close to or above 200. July 4 – 273 July 11 – 350 July 18 – 512 July 25 – 662 I heard in the news this week that vaccinations are good at preventing serious illness and death (only 0.5% of deaths are vaccinated people). However, vaccinated people, if they catch the virus, can spread it to others, such as children who can’t yet be vaccinated. That’s even if they show no symptoms. Michigan deaths per day remain at 6 and below, except for a jump up to 11 on one day this week. So the guidance is now for even vaccinated people to wear a mask when indoors with other people. Maybe it is time to go back to wearing a mask in the Sunday service and have take-out for Sunday lunch. Caroline Orr Bueno, a behavioral scientist tweeted:

A lot of people still express skepticism about whether Russia’s 2016 disinformation campaign could have actually changed voter behavior, and I would just like you to look at our pathetically low vaccination rate if you still don’t think disinformation can affect behavior.

Kos of Daily Kos discussed the current vaccination efforts. Rep. Clay Higgens, Republican from Louisiana, reported that he and his wife are going through COVID for the second time, and claiming that China weaponized the virus. That prompted Kos to write:

Higgins can’t actually believe that, can he? If attacked, isn’t the obvious response to, you know, protect yourself against that attack? If he truly believed that, wouldn’t he want to deploy countermeasures such as—just spitballing here—a vaccine?

So perhaps conservatives are tired of dying and are ready for a solution. Perhaps they may change their mind about getting the jab if we (or allow them to) start calling it the “Trump vaccine.” Yeah, I know that’s an affront to Biden who actually got the vaccine in millions of arms. But if it works, sure, why not? It also benefits us reality based people in helping to stop the disease and stop the creation of new variants which might avoid the vaccine protections. Kenneth Baer tweeted data from Axios about public opinion on a few COVID related issues. For example Axios showed that 70% of those polled agree that passengers should be required to get a vaccine before boarding a plane. Other similar issues poll above 60%. Alex Burns tweeted a response:

one pretty consistent feature of pandemic-era political culture has been a widespread elite suspicion that the average voter's view of public health is closer to donald trump's than joe biden's, and it's never been true

Carlos Suarez of NBC6 in Florida tweeted about an executive order from Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The governor is threatening to defund school districts that require face masks, according to executive order:

Leah McElrath added:

Republicans across the nation are leveraging this pandemic to try to create chaos that they hope will ultimately undermine parental support for the public education system. Mark my words.

The New Yorker tweeted a cartoon that seems appropriate about now. Chitown Kev, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted a few people of interest. First is Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post, who laments the state of journalism and offers solutions.

Mainstream journalists want their work to be perceived as fair-minded and nonpartisan. They want to defend themselves against charges of bias. So they equalize the unequal. This practice seems so ingrained as to be unresolvable. There is a way out. But it requires the leadership of news organizations to radically reframe the mission of its Washington coverage. As a possible starting point, I’ll offer these recommendations: Toss out the insidious “inside-politics” frame and replace it with a “pro-democracy” frame. Stop calling the reporters who cover this stuff “political reporters.” Start calling them “government reporters.” Stop asking who the winners and losers were in the latest skirmish. Start asking who is serving the democracy and who is undermining it. Stop being “savvy” and start being patriotic.

The second item is from Lauren Michele Jackson of The New Yorker, discussed the current debate over Critical Race Theory. From the excerpt I’m not sure of Jackson’s main point, though she include something useful that Ibram X. Kendi said in an interview.

The divide over critical race theory is based on a misunderstanding that it “seeks to attack white people” rather than “to attack structural racism.”

I’m sure that misunderstanding is intentionally promoted by those wanting to keep structural racism. The third is from Ben Brasch of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Republican Party in Georgia has started the process, authorized by a new law passed earlier this month, to raise doubts about the performance of the election board in Fulton County, the county with the most Democrats. The new law allows a performance review of the board. And yes, those conducting the review are the ones who would benefit if the current board is declared unsatisfactory. Higher turnout cannot fix this situation. Only a federal bill can. Hunter of Kos reported on the latest of the Arizona fraudit. Ken Bennett is the liaison between the audit and the state Senate. He felt frozen out of the process, so quit. He was frozen out because the audit found no fraud and Cyber Ninjas, the company doing the audit, is looking for reasons to delay its report. But a day later Bennett said he worked out an agreement with Cyber Ninjas and unquit.