You’ve no doubt noticed that many states around the nation are not only fully opening up, but they’re also ditching any state-wide mask requirements. Alabama is an interesting case because while the state is backing off many of its COVID regulations, Governor Kay Ivey announced last week that she is keeping the mask mandate in place until April 9, at which point it will go away for good.
I’ve got some thoughts on this that I hope will be in print soon, but if not, you’ll get them here. But I think it’s interesting that Ivey isn’t joining with fellow Republican governors like Greg Abbott of Texas and Tate Reeves of Mississippi in dismissing masks altogether. She and her staff have set a defined end, but they’ve kept masking around in order to allow vaccinations to catch up.
It’s not perfect and there are man questions about what’s next. I’m curious about what schools will do. Moreover, I’m curious about what individuals will do - will they adhere to requests from schools, churches, and businesses? Will law enforcement support business owners who make these requests? I hope the answer is yes all around.
In any case, Ivey’s decision to thread this needle showed real leadership. The easy thing in the world would have been to bow to pressure from within her own party and be done with the whole thing.
My friend Dana McCain has a really fine piece making just that argument. Read it here.
In other news, you’ve probably heard that the latest COVID relief bill is set to pass the House vote, with President Biden ready to sign it by the end of the week. It’s a large, expensive bill with plenty of items in it that are not directly related to COVID. Yet it’s hard for me to muster a lot of outrage right now. As Jonah Goldberg notes in this piece in the LA Times, the GOP has never really been serious about cutting costs, and it’s hard for anyone to take them seriously anymore.
Money quote: “If you spend decades flip-flopping on debt and spending, depending on whether or not you’re in power, you shouldn’t be shocked if the voters say, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Send me my money.”
Lastly, a word or two about the Dr. Seuss debacle.
I think it’s interesting that many Congressional Republicans spent more time talking about the Cat in the Hat last week than they did actually trying to govern. I know that the Democrats have enough votes to get their COVID relief bill passed with much in the way of Republican input - but it’s deeply cynical for Republicans to throw in the towel on governing in exchange for culture war, especially when it’s a battle within the culture war over which they have no control.
I’m generally not a fan of what’s happened here, for reasons I’ll explain in a quick minute, but it’s telling that no Republican took to social media to awkwardly read a passage from any of the books set to go out of print. Instead, they opted for Seuss classics. Maybe that’s because they’re more recognizable, but it’s also because the books in question have some objectionable material. Some of it them worse than others, but if these books are worth defending, then defend these books, but don’t drag another part of the author’s bibliography into the argument.
But then again, I think that highlights part of the problem for the average person - they don’t know or understand where the limits are to these controversies, and much of it feels both arbitrary and swift. Slow movements, with better definitions, would make the reassessment of our cultural past a better, more productive project.
If you want more on this, shoot me a note, or check out this Ross Douthat piece in Sunday’s New York Times.
I’ll be back later this week. In the meantime, take care.