Thread by @ClaireBerlinski

This column by @davidfrum gets at something I sense, too. He asks, "Will Blue America ever decide it’s had enough of being put medically at risk by people and places whose bills it pays?" Then concludes rhetorically: "Check yourself: Have you?"
Still, theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Then what? Yes, this is different, somehow, different even than realizing a large minority of the country voted for Trump--twice. This is a far more personal and physical assault. People are sick of the pandemic. Sick of fearing for the people they love. Sick of lockdowns.

Sick of cripplied economies. Sick of the burden on the healthcare system and above all the healthcare workers. And everyone understands that the obstacle to returning to normalcy is the anti-vaxxers--a danger to themselves, their families, their communities, and their countries.

But what are we prepared to do? Secede? I think levels of rage about this are higher than I've ever seen them before in the US. This is one stunt too many. People feel--because it's true--that their lives and their parents' lives and their kids' lives are being endangered.

No longer so much by the virus, because we've beaten it: We know end the pandemic, and we have the tools to do it. But by the imbeciles, who won't let us end the pandemic. And no one feels, anymore, no matter what they say, that we're all one America.

When other Americans don't care if they kill you, or your family, or tank the economy--they've broken the social compact. It's impossible to feel a warm sense of shared citizenship with people who don't care if they kill the people you love.

But what next? We can't break up. We're stuck together. And we can't reconcile. This has been a bridge too far. We're trapped together. The anti-vaxxers say we don't respect them. It's true. We don't. We don't like them, either.

Are we still meaningfully a country? It's kind of hard to see what we have in common anymore. But nothing would be solved by secession. So we have to figure out a way to make it work.