Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is continuing his self-serving theatrics as the Biden administration works to contain the spread of COVID-19, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of American lives. In recent days, Hawley spouted off in a letter to top officials in the Biden administration, complaining about the contents of new rules that require federal personnel to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The Editorial Board of The Kansas City Star went after Hawley in a new editorial, saying that the Senator “wastes our time and his by focusing on imaginary affronts to the cloudless world in which he lives.” Talk about a take-down.
Hawley’s specific complaints include issues with the federal approach to religious exemptions for COVID-19 vaccines. Basically, the provisions call for documentation that a claimed religious exemption is based in an honestly held belief, but Hawley finds even a push for basic documentation regarding critical public health issues to be overreach. According to the infamous Missouri Senator, the guidelines show “a skepticism and contempt for religious beliefs.” On what planet do requests for basic verification while fighting a disease that has killed vast numbers of people mean that religious beliefs are being treated contemptuously? The Star observed as follows:
‘Apparently, Hawley gets to decide what is and isn’t sincere. That’s ridiculous and dangerous. The government, for example, asks employees a series of questions to fully understand a religious objection to the COVID shot. Have you had other shots recently? it asks… If you’re fine with a polio shot, but object to a COVID shot, tell us why. Hard to see much wrong with that.’
Essentially, Hawley needs to get real. He’s glossing over the basic reality of what’s going on around him, opting instead to live in a political fairy tale world in which anything that poses a mild inconvenience is some kind of existential threat to freedom — or whatever. While people in Missouri and across the country deal with real issues, Hawley and his allies remain sharply focused on head-in-the-clouds nonsense. It’s pathetic.
At another point in his letter to authorities, Hawley complained about a reference in vaccine guidelines to “people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to become pregnant now, or trying to become pregnant in the future.” He called this phrasing “woke language,” haughtily insisting that the people in question are “what we used to call expectant mothers.” Hawley’s idea is that this phrasing represents some kind of undercut to conservative ideas of gender, which is nonsense. “People who are pregnant… trying to become pregnant now” and the like delivers more meaningful information, especially regarding medical issues, than the phrase “expectant mothers.”
As the Star pointedly put it:
‘The COVID requirement, and guidance, and language, are designed to save lives, not target conservatives. Saving lives should be on everyone’s agenda. Like all Missourians, we wish Sen. Hawley would focus on real concerns: health care, education, infrastructure and a changing climate, perhaps. Instead, he wastes our time and his by focusing on imaginary affronts to the cloudless world in which he lives, mostly for perceived political advantage. He is making the COVID crisis worse to further his political career. It is cynical and dangerous, and must be rejected by Missourians.’
Read more here.