Thread by @daniela127

I am a registered Democrat. I have voted in every election (primary & general) since I turned 18. I have never once, not ever, voted for a Republican. I thought after Trump I never would.

Guys, this is really bad. Really, really bad.

nyti.ms/3dbTGTg

Every day I meet someone who thinks that once teachers are vaxd, schools will magically go back to full time. But there is zero effort to tie teacher vax to open schools. A Rep Sen attempted to tie vax to a commitment to open schools. Was it a cynical move? Yes. But also smart.

D success in 2018 and 2020 relied on suburban (white) women who aren't really Democrats, but they didn't like Trump. D success in 2022 (including holding onto a majority in Congress) will depend on these women.

These women, right now, are sitting at home watching their kindergartener do zoom school. They're watching their HS senior miss the final year of HS. They're watching their middle schooler grow despondent because she can't participate in sports and can't see her friends.

Maybe some of them felt for teachers and agree they should be vaccinated before returning. But in many places teachers are being prioritized and will be vaxxed within a few weeks. Schools will not open.

Everywhere, all teachers will have been offered the vaccine by the fall. Will schools open full time? Not in the unions have anything to say about it.

So let's go back to that suburban woman who voted for Biden, the one with the three kids in zoom school. She sees teachers have been vaxxed. Her kids are still home. The R running for Congress says that Rs wanted to tie teacher vax to schools reopening, but Ds said no.

Who do you think she's voting for?

Dems can try to sell this as Trump didn't do enough to quell covid, but the simplest and easiest narrative is that Dems bent to the union.

Ignoring science for special interests is exactly what Ds accuse Rs of all the time in the climate change arena. But right now parents are slowly realizing that Biden's @CDCgov is ignoring the science on schools to appease their own special interest - unions.

And if they don't realize it yet, they will realize it when Republicans tell them, over and over, that this is what is happening. Unions being prioritized over children, working women, and working families - the exact constituents Democrats purport to represent.a

And unlike climate change, which is a distant, future problem, voters will see that their kids can't read, their kids can't socialize properly, their kids are depressed. The effects of over a year of school closure will immediate and very personal.

2022 will be the first election cycle when Trump and his cult of personality won't be on the ballot, but Dems can still ride the anti-Trump sentiment. They're blowing it as we watch.