It’s clear that Senator Johnson (R-WI) is experiencing cognitive decline, or is trying a little too hard to manipulate his base:
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) drew some stunned reactions with his latest bafflingly flawed anti-vaccine take.
During a familiar rant Monday on a conservative radio show about the merits of relying on the body’s “natural immunity” to COVID-19 after being infected with the virus, the senator asked, “Why do we assume that the body’s natural immune system isn’t the marvel that it is?”
“Why do we think that we can create something better than God in terms of combating disease?” he added.
“There are certain things we have to do, but we have just made so many assumptions, and it’s all pointed toward everybody getting a vaccine.” [HuffPost]
The discrediting comebacks are easily thought up, and have spewed from many of those who listened or read about it already; my immediate reaction is 800,000+ dead leaves his argument looking like roadkill.
But it’s worth noting that he’s speaking to a conservative audience, and is clearly hoping that, by appealing to a vague religious dimension, that he can raise the audience’s hackles against the pro-vaccine supporters[1], thus strengthening the conservative movement.
But I have to wonder how many Wisconsinites, even within the target demographic, looked around, not surrounded by their now-dead family and friends, all victims of Covid-19 and its variants, and decided the Senator is nothing more than a cold-blooded manipulator – or a demented candidate for a rest home.
And have decided to walk away from him.
It’s one thing to infuriate your opponents. It’s quite another to baldly manipulate and insult your own base. I wonder many of that base have figured that out, and now have to decide if their dislike of the Democrats is enough to force them to the dishonorable choice of voting for Johnson next time around, or whoever wins the Republican nomination, should he choose to retire.
1 To any sane mind, the pro-vaccine movement is the conservative position, while anti-vaxx goes against the accumulated wisdom of decades, even more than a century.
