There might be an element of this, but if you're surprised that the @CAGOP would vote against #SB276, you haven't been paying attention to @GOP politics and it's increasing alignment with antivaxers. 1/https://twitter.com/madrid_mike/status/1172989216147460096 …
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Indeed,
@vicenews did a story on the increasingly right wing tilt of the antivaccine movement. 7/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2017/07/13/more-on-the-politicization-of-school-vaccine-mandates/ …Show this thread -
The same thing was happening in Michigan, with
@MI4VaxChoice bringing in@delbigtree to meet with mostly@MIGOP legislators about vaccine mandates. Bigtree used inflammatory, right wing rhetoric about freedom, parental rights, and government overreach. https://respectfulinsolence.com/2016/10/28/nobody-promotes-antivaccine-nonsense-in-my-statewithout-receiving-some-insolence-2016-election-edition/ … 8/Show this thread -
Meanwhile, also in my state
@MIGOP legislators kept trying to make measles great again in my state. 9/https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/make-measles-great-again-a-case-study-of-the-politicization-of-school-vaccine-requirements-in-michigan/ …Show this thread -
I witnessed this dynamic at work in my own Congressional district last year during the
@MIGOP primaries. One candidate for the nomination in my district held an antivax confab. 10/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2018/08/03/jeff-noble-kerry-bentivolio-host-antivax/ …Show this thread -
Worse, my then-state senator was antivax as hell, my state rep was well on his way to becoming antivax. Fortunately, neither are in office anymore.
@pjcolbeck was term limited, and@Vote_Jeff_Noble lost to@koleszar_matt. 11/Show this thread -
So successful was the antivax movement at linking their beliefs with conservative beliefs in freedom and parental rights plus right wing antipathy against government regulation, increasingly,
@GOP candidates felt they had to pander to antivaxers, lest they be primaried. 12/Show this thread -
We even saw this dynamic in the
@GOP presidential primaries in 2016.@ChrisChristie,@realDonaldTrump,@RandPaul, and@SecretaryCarson all pandered to antivaxers, even during the debates. 13/https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/donald-trump-and-the-dangerous-vaccine-politics-of-the-2016-presidential-race/ …Show this thread -
Of course, Rand Paul didn't just pander. He really is an antivaxer. 14/
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In any event, this alignment led to the
@GOP becoming the only one of the two major parties where antivaxers now feel at home. 14/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2019/04/19/gop-has-become-antivaxer/ …Show this thread -
Sure, there are left wing antivaxers; e.g.,
@marwilliamson,@RobertKennedyJr,@DrJillStein,@RobSchneider. However,@TheDemocrats treat them as fringe, as they should. Dems don't have to pander to antivaxers to win nominations to run for their party. 15/Show this thread -
Worse, the conflation of freedom and parental rights with antivax views has led enough in the
@GOP base to become receptive to antivax pseudoscience and conspiracy theories that they support antivaxers. 16/Show this thread -
All of this is why it should come as no surprise to
@madrid_mike or anyone else that@CAGOP opposed#SB276 and@SB714. 17/Show this thread -
I can’t help but take note of an off-the-cuff remark by Rep. Noble in the Q&A after the aforementioned antivax confab in my district last year in which he mentioned that the Republicans on the Health Policy Committee are the only ones receptive to vaccine choice initiatives. 18/
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Rep. Noble also complained that
@MichiganDems "won’t even consider" bills loosening vaccine mandates and want to “shove vaccines down your throat (or arm).” 19/Show this thread -
Again, the
@GOP has become sympathetic to antivaccine arguments and pseudoscience, thanks to the successful conflation of resistance to vaccine mandates with freedom and parental rights. 20/Show this thread -
It should therefore not surprise anyone wheat happened in the California legislature. 21/21
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What happened in the California legislature...
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End of conversation
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