Axios Dubs GOP Rage Over Biden Vaccine Mandates ‘America’s Civil War of 2021’
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As Republicans at every level of government rage about President Joe Biden’s new Covid vaccine requirements, Axios has dubbed the conflict “America’s Civil War of 2021.”
On Thursday, the president delivered a speech in which he announced a six-prong plan of attack against the Delta-fueled coronavirus surge, one which included some very broad vaccine requirements that fell short of a blanket national mandate — but which certainly carried the spirit of one.
That announcement sparked by-now-predictable outrage from prominent conservative media figures and Republican political leaders.
And on Friday morning, Axios’ Mike Allen published a roundup of that outrage under the ominous heading “America’s civil war of 2021.”
Allen noted that Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance “urged ‘mass civil disobedience’ to Biden’s plan to use federal authority to mandate vaccination for roughly two-third of America workers,” that “Several Republican governors say they’ll go to court to try to stop the mandate for federal employees, contractors and private employers with 100+ workers (enforced by OSHA),” and that “South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem told Sean Hannity on Fox News: ‘In South Dakota, we’re going to be free. … We will take action. My legal team is already working.'”
But a White House source told Allen that the administration expected this backlash:
An official close to Biden tells me the West Wing “knew there would be strong backlash. But unless someone took this on, we’d be in a pandemic forever.”
“Biden beat Trump by promising strong action based on science. He can’t let Abbott/DeSantis block tough action.”
Invoking a civil-rights parallel, the official added: “Basically Biden is staring down Southern governors (and some Northern allies). … Is America divided? Yes. But Biden is uniting the 75% vs. the 25% that is in opposition.”The official’s bottom line: “That is unity politics in a divided nation — unifying the overwhelming majority threatened by an unruly minority.”
The Civil War analogy takes on extra resonance, Allen notes at the top, in the wake of the violent Capitol insurrection that ushered out the last administration. Those insurrectionists carried a Confederate flag.
