Neanderthal Thinking aka Hyper-Partisanship

Last week when President Biden was asked about Governor Abbott rolling back COVID restrictions, he described it as “neanderthal thinking.”  Leaving aside the fact that Neanderthals actually had larger brains than modern humans (I mean if we are all going “follow the science”), Biden’s comments seemed particularly ungracious since just days earlier Abbott had welcomed Biden to Texas and publicly thanked and praised him for his emergency assistance in the wake of the ice storm.  But instead of proving he was the bigger person, Abbott responded by calling Biden a Neanderthal for releasing migrants into the country who had not been tested for COVID.

Biden’s comment also stands in stark contrast to his silence in the face of two Democratic officials’ atrocious handling of COVID related issues.  Of course, the most publicized was New York Governor Andrew Cuomo falsifying nursing home fatality records.

But in what is even a more consequential blunder, Detroit’s Democratic mayor Mike Duggan last week refused shipments of the J&J vaccines on the theory that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were more effective and that he only wanted the best for Detroiters.

There is not a single medical expert who agrees with his decision.  It is certainly not based on “the science”, CDC guidance or the advice of any public health officials.  Yet, there have been crickets from the White House and only scant coverage in the media of this asinine and dangerous decision.  Can you imagine the media coverage if Abbott had refused the J&J vaccine for Texas?

Why?  Partisan politics, of course.  Biden and Duggan are from the same tribe.  Biden and Abbott are not.

Of course, Republicans are just as bad, if not worse.  Had a Democratic president done any number of the things Trump pulled, Republicans would have been howling. 

If any of us had children that were calling each other Neanderthals, they would immediately go to time-out, or worse.  Why do we put up with this kind of conduct from our elected leaders?

Thomas Paine once wrote:

“Party knows no impulse but spirit, no prize but victory.  It is blind to truth, and hardened against conviction.  It seeks to justify error by perseverance, and denies to its own mind the operation of its own judgment.  A man under the tyranny of party spirit is the greatest slave upon the earth, for none but himself can deprive him of the freedom of thought.”

To that, all I can say is “Amen.”