Gallagher's garbage on COVID is more WisGOP fauxtrage, double-talk

The first Monday of 2022 and we get this crap?

.@RepGallagher: "You can almost feel the fear setting in again, and the media are stoking the fear. They're pushing the narrative that this feels like March 2020 again because that's how they profit. They profit from the fear. But here's the thing: it's not March 2020." pic.twitter.com/jeYcy5m78j

— The Hill (@thehill) January 3, 2022

Gallagher may have a Packer t-shirt and a pretty face, but he's just as much of an ugly lowlife as the rest of Wisconsin's horrendous GOP delegation to Congress. Let me give you more of what the "reasonable" Republican spewed out today.

“So please, don’t fall for the fear game. We have the tools we need to continue to live our lives while protecting the vulnerable. And if you disagree with me, at the very least, can we agree that we cannot shut down schools again. This was our biggest blunder and shame on us if we repeat it again. We can’t afford to inject that fear into our kids’ classrooms or allow them to fall further behind. And I’m sorry but remote learning is not a substitute, especially for young kids. Remote learning is a euphemism for school shutdowns and that is a recipe for student failure. Sitting in front of a screen all day is not learning. Milwaukee Public Schools is shutting down schools. Same with Madison. I’ve heard reports in Racine. Thankfully not yet in Northeast Wisconsin.

“And when it comes to remote learning, talk about a policy that punishes the poor relative to the rich. Rich people can do remote work. Rich people can run away to their beach houses with a bunch of iPads and high-speed internet and probably hire private tutors, while they sit there wondering who stocks the shelves at Whole Foods. Working-class people have to work, in person. And their kids need to be in school, in-person, with teachers, and with other students. Not even Biden’s education secretary wants to shut down schools.

Nobody WANTS to shut down schools, you a-hole! But when there is a lack of staff because of mass illness and don't want the illness to continue, sometimes it's the option you have to take to try to stop the damage and get back to normal.

(By the way, this take on inequalities is quite rich coming from Gallagher, who went to an elite private school in Santa Ana and received degrees from Princeton and Georgetown. Also the lines about "protecting the vulnerable and "beach houses and high speed internet" are cute coming from a guy who didn't vote for the infrastructure bill that expands broadband access or the Build Back Better bill that supports the vulnerable and lessens inequalities)

Gallagher also claims that the recent rise in COVID cases is evidence of the Biden Administration's "failure" because

...There is no federal solution for coronavirus and for most things in our lives. Recognizing that is a cause for courage, not fear. We need to take charge of our own health, our own lives, and our own children, and not spend the rest of our lives locked inside because of fear.

First of all, no one at the federal level is shutting down schools, or really anything else. There have been ZERO limitations on travel outside of airlines (aka "private businesses") who are cancelling flights due to staff being out sick. All of these school closings are decisions being made at the local level, which used to be what Republicans were all about.

And you know the easiest way that we "take charge of our own health, our lives", Mike? By getting vaccinated, limiting your exposure and wearing masks so you are less likely to 1. get the virus, and 2. end up in the hospital if you do get COVID.

A lot of your constituents in the 920 haven't been taking charge of their own health, because they have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the state (outside of very blue Menominee County and Biden-backing Door County).

But Republicans like Gallagher don't care to ask their constituents to do their part in controlling this latest surge, because they're the ones that want COVID to continue in 2022. Republicans have no ideas of their own to run on (well, nothing that they want voters to know about, anyway), and so they figure their best chance to win in November is to have things be as rotten as much as possible.

Mike Gallagher's garbage from today is a perfect example of this type of two-stepping. GOPs pretend to care about the damage and frustrations that are the result of the pandemic. but they don't do a thing that might actually help to keep people from being affected, if not outright encouraging the reckless, selfish behavior that has made COVID a far larger drag than it ever should have been.