Ohio Governor Mike DeWine currently trails former Congressman Jim Renacci, 42-32, in polling among likely Republican primary voters.
It would be a hilariously fitting end to DeWine’s political legacy. He is a multimillionaire thanks a multigenerational business and because he’s a little freak he decided to spend decades in government making life harder for people that actually had to work for a living.
A year ago, a sitting Republican governor losing a primary would have been unthinkable. Especially DeWine, who expertly threaded the needle between his predecessor John Kasich and President Business Deals during the 2018 midterm election.
And then coronavirus happened. Sure, DeWine stopped caring about the pandemic when he accepted Dr. Amy Acton’s resignation after an armed militia of message board posters stomped around outside her house in Bexley.
Republican voters, however, can’t handle having to wear a mask while grocery shopping or even from the door to their table in a restaurant. To them, it’s is akin to tyranny because they have never been oppressed a day in their coddled lives.
Thanks to Facebook, misinformation travels at light speed.This was true before coronavirus, but now it’s filed in a single hub that’s a matter of public health.
We have seen how that’s playing out with vaccination rates in Ohio. Roughly 40% of Ohioans have been vaccinated, which is a far cry from the 70%-75% needed for herd immunity… the concept with which the right wing was obsessed at the beginning of the pandemic but not so much anymore now that it involves having to get two free shots in their flabby arms.
From Anna Hunstman of ideastream.org:
Residents have expressed concern about the long-term effects of the vaccines and belief that they may cause infertility, she said.
“Of course, that strikes a heart chord for a lot of women, and it’s something that makes them pause,” Demuth said. “We’re just doing the best we can to share the facts and messages to help people make an informed choice about what’s right for them.”
In rural Ashtabula County, at the tip of Northeast Ohio, health officials are also targeting misinformation.
Dr. Kevin Andryc, director of University Hospitals (UH) emergency departments in Geauga and Ashtabula counties, has even heard hesitancy from patients admitted with COVID-19.
“I purposely ask that very question – ‘have you had your vaccine?’ And all of them have been a no, and a lot of them give me a look like they don’t trust it,” he said. “The understanding of the science behind it, especially the mRNA one, is kind of misunderstood, or not understood enough to know that it’s safe and works very well.”
This is a failure in government from the party of Donald Trump, which is ironic considering Trump himself has been vaccinated after nearly succumbing to the virus seven months ago.
With DeWine trailing in the polls and the vaccines being available to those smart enough to take it, it wasn’t surprising yesterday when the governor announced he would be lifting all coronavirus restrictions on June 2nd.
What was surprising was DeWine announcing Ohio would give away $1 million in weekly drawings to five random Ohioans who had been vaccinated. The money will come from federal COVID relief money, which the feds may disavow when they learn our backwater state is using daddy’s money in a gambling enterprise.
This is the dumbest fucking idea I’ve ever heard. I don’t think a basically non-existent chance to win $1 million will persuade somebody who thinks the vaccine will kill their penis’s ability to produce sperm or whatever insane conspiracy floating around social media this week.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m dumb enough that I’m already fantasizing about the supervillian lair I’m going to build on Titty Island when I sweep the coronavirus lotteries.
I’m also smart enough to realize that, holy shit, there are about five million better ways to blow $5 million in federal relief money than some gimmick that most likely won’t work.
You know what people like more than a one-in-three million chance to win a million dollars? A guaranteed $100 for getting vaccinated in the first place. Or perhaps we could put that money into a fund to cover lost wages for hourly employees who want to get vaccinated but can’t afford to take the day off work, which is another huge impediment towards herd immunity.
It is fitting in a way that this will all end with in a lottery, a ponzi scheme that traditionally serves as a voluntary tax on poor people. The illusions of grandeur will distract us from the negligence of our leaders before our fantasies are instead ripped away by an 86-year-old with pancreatic cancer who would have a heart attack if he ever stepped foot on Titty Island.
Maybe I’ve got it wrong. Maybe a lottery will get more piggies to the trough and this will go down as the one good governmental innovation that has come from Ohio in my lifetime. But the much more likely scenario is Ohio once again becomes a laughingstock of America.
THOSE WMDs. Homeless Oaklanders were tired of the housing crisis, so they built a “miracle” village… The five keys to falling asleep… The global chip shortage is having major real-world consequences… Death at a Penn State fraternity… Ohio’s least-visited state parks have outdoor gems for crowd-haters… Who should John Mulaney be now?