Originally Posted by
nomiiiii
Its a niche issue yes, but its a niche issue with richer well-to-do families, including relatives and families of politicians and officials, and also wealthier older retirees. The exact demographic that has a lot of influence in the discourse and shaping public policy.
If the GOP makes big waves about this and makes it a partisan issue, unfortunately it will make the other side dig their heels and ask for the testing requirement to stay, in order to not give a 'win' to the republican side. The best way forward to end this testing requirement is to keep it as nonpartisan as possible and just focus on how stupid it is scientifically etc.
I just don't think those types of people are going to threaten withholding donations, or make big donations, over this issue. That's the type of thing that will move the needle for your average member of Congress (says the person who doesn't have representation in Congress).
I do agree that pushing on the partisan aspect would not be beneficial. I thought it would go away at some point after the winter Omicron wave died down, but at this point I think it's almost purely traditional bureacratic inertia. It takes work and effort to change policy, and you have to get a bunch of people to say yes, who are going to worry what negative thing will happen if they change the current policy. So the lean in this type of situation is always going to be towards not changing things. Any large organization is a big old cruise ship- it involves a lot of people doing a lot of things, and can't exactly stop and start on a dime.