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From the "The Morning" by David Leonhardt, New York Times:
The partisan divide in Covid attitudes has been so large that you might think Americans would be split roughly down the middle about which of the two political parties had handled the pandemic better.
But that’s not the case. Americans give the Democrats significantly higher marks, according to The Times’s latest Covid poll, which was conducted by Morning Consult:
Which party has handled COVID better overall?
Democrats: 45%
Republicans: 32%
Don't know or no opinion: 23%
This finding runs through multiple questions in the poll. When pollsters gave respondents a list of adjectives and asked which ones applied to each party, more adults described the Democratic approach as protective, decisive, practical and trustworthy. More respondents said that the words irresponsible and neglectful applied to the Republican Party.
On most of these questions, the gap tended to hover around 10 percentage points — a sign that most Americans still do prefer their own political party’s approach to Covid. Yet the Democrats’ advantage is striking among a couple of groups. Self-identified moderates give the Democratic Party much better marks, as do people ages 65 and above, even though older Americans lean Republican.
By Age Group:
18-34
Democrats 48%
Republicans 28%
Don't know or no opinion: 24%
35-44
Democrats 40%
Republicans 32%
Don't know or no opinion: 28%
45-64
Democrats 41%
Republicans 36%
Don't know or no opinion: 23%
65 and older
Democrats 53%
Republicans 33%
Don't know or no opinion: 14%
By Ideology:
Liberal
Democrats: 82%
Republicans: 10%
Don't know or no opinion: 8%
Moderate
Democrats: 49%
Republicans: 21%
Don't know or no opinion: 30%
Conservative
Democrats: 12%
Republicans: 69%
Don't know or no opinion: 19%
I think these views are grounded in reality. Regular readers know that I’ve been tough on some parents of the liberal approach to Covid. Many liberal communities kept schools closed for months on end, which harmed children, and some progressives have downplayed the mental-health damage from pandemic disruption and isolation.
But the Republican Party’s overall approach has departed from scientific reality much more. During the pandemic’s early weeks, President Donald Trump, in one of his many false statements about Covid, predicted, “I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along.”
Since then, Republican political leaders and media figures have spoken so negatively about the vaccines that about 30 percent of Republican adults still have not received a shot. The vaccine gap, tragically, has resulted in a much higher Covid death rate in conservative parts of the country.
