| Unleash Prosperity Hotline Issue #258 04/07/2021 |
| 1) Why Are Democrats More Afraid of COVID Than Republicans? The latest Gallup poll (https://news.gallup.com/poll/344183/americans-worry-catching-covid-drops-record-low.aspx) confirms what has been true for a year now. Democrats are still much more worried about contracting COVID than Republicans are. In February, two of three registered Democrats were very or moderately worried about COVID versus one in four GOPers. Gallup finds that as the vaccine has become more accessible, worry about the virus has abated, but the partisan fear-gap persists. Half of all Democrats still worry about COVID versus one in six Republicans. If you are a Democrat reading this, you are three times more likely to fear COVID than if you are a Republican.  We think that the media has played a major role in scaring people, but with more than half a million American fatalities due to the virus – predominantly those over age 65 – we will leave aside the issue of whether the fear of COVID has been excessive. What is unarguable is that young people’s fears border on paranoia. Even in February (before seniors received vaccinations), those under the age of 45 were more likely to worry about COVID than those over 45. Those between 18-45 are 5 to 10 times less likely to get sick from COVID, but they are more likely to worry about it. Millennials! The fascinating political/socioeconomic question we wonder about is WHY Democrats are prone to worry about the virus. We think that there are four several possible explanations: A) Democrats are much more likely to believe fake news sources like CNN, NPR, the Washington Post, and the NY Times. B) Republicans are much less likely to oppose the government telling us what to do. Democrats like rules and taking orders. C) Democrats are much more likely to have cushy jobs – teacher union members, university professors, media reporters and commentators, government employees, lawyers, social workers, and so on – whose lives were least adversely affected by lockdowns. Working class Americans – i.e. republicans – from delivery people to truck drivers to plumbers and business owners – couldn’t afford to worry and quit their jobs. They soldiered on and didn’t have the luxury of getting paid for parking in front of the computer screen for a year. D) All of the above What do you think? |
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