I’m not sure this qualifies as “news” given that the entire country just watched Terry McAuliffe sh*t the bed in a Biden +10 state due to endless school closures.

But “liberals chafing at endless restrictions” has been a theme on the site this week, and may be contributing to a turn against vaccine mandates by some major employers. And paradoxically, I think the emergence of Omicron has accelerated the trend. You might assume that the spread of a hyper-infectious new variant would send the risk-averse running for cover but the signals lately are in the opposite direction, with even some of the risk-averse beginning to view restrictions as not worth the bother. It was one thing to self-isolate until the vaccines are available but we’ve had them for a year now and are still being beset sporadically by new variants. What’s to be gained by continuing to hunker down and mask up at this point? When does it end?

Democrats are beginning to feel pressure, says Politico.

In his most candid assessment of his 3-point victory to date, [Gov. Phil] Murphy said some New Jerseyans “feel like government is not connecting with them. They’re sick of masks, being told what to do in terms of vaccines, probably not thrilled with what they sense is going on in Washington, they may have lost a job or a business that went bust — or a loved one, worse yet.”…

For many Democrats, the answer is already apparent: The start of the pandemic may have sent governors’ approval ratings shooting through the roof, but its durability is an existential threat to their power across the map, from traditional battleground states to even reliably Democratic territory like Virginia and New Jersey…

“Nobody ran for governor thinking, ‘well, one day I’ll be the governor who shuts down graduations, weddings, funerals, 4th of July parades, Labor Day picnics, closes bars, because of the highly transmissible virus out there,’” continued [Gov. Janet] Mills, who faces a likely rematch with former GOP Gov. Paul LePage next year. “And yet, most of us had to do some measure of that kind of thing … which is very hard.”

They’re right to worry, per a new poll today from Monmouth. Pandemic fatigue is deepening among members of both parties nationally, to the point where Americans are less likely to support vaccine passports and state restrictions now than they were three months ago despite the new risk from Omicron:

When asked if they feel “worn out” by the pandemic, 36 percent of Americans said yes, a lot. That includes 35 percent of Democrats. More than a third of the president’s base is fed up, in case that wasn’t already obvious from the gubernatorial results in Virginia.

Are liberals getting the message about all this and recalibrating? Some are. Gretchen Whitmer, a shortlister for Biden’s VP last year thanks to her aggressive lockdowns early in the pandemic, is up for reelection in purplish Michigan and now has “concerns” about Biden’s federal vaccine mandate. Biden himself recently released a five-point plan for combating Omicron and the words “masks” and “stay-at-home orders” were conspicuously nowhere to be found:

Our 5-step plan to fight COVID-19 this winter:
1. Expanding the nationwide booster campaign
2. Launching new family vaccination clinics
3. Making at-home tests available
4. Increasing surge response teams
5. Accelerating our efforts to vaccinate the rest of the world

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 13, 2021

On the other hand, his spokesman was asked a few days ago about the grim phenomenon of young children, who are nearly invulnerable to severe COVID, having to eat lunch outside at school in the cold to prevent transmission and seemed perfectly cool with it.

Psaki defends Biden's Covid Restrictions… as kids freeze to eat lunch

Parents like having their little ones shiver outside in freezing temperatures to uphold Covid standards, according to WH spox Jen Psaki… "It's no big deal," for her 3-year-old. pic.twitter.com/uqw3zMwIGp

— @Immune Truth (@ImmuneTruth) December 10, 2021

The biggest blue states, California and New York, have brought back indoor mask mandates to try to limit the spread of Omicron…

Six months ago, Gov. Cuomo lifted almost all statewide COVID restrictions, because NY had met the CDC threshold of having 70% of adults get one shot.

That rate now, after Gov. Hochul restored the restrictions? 93%.

— Matt Welch (@MattWelch) December 15, 2021

…and some local jurisdictions in those states are emphasizing that “indoor” includes your own home, at least when someone from another household is visiting:

Santa Cruz, California: "masks must be worn in private settings, including your home, when non-household members are present." https://t.co/1HBiojC8Df pic.twitter.com/orKIYHxq1S

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) December 14, 2021

Liberal institutions are also scrambling to try to slow Omicron. At Cornell University, 97 percent of the overwhelmingly young and healthy population is fully vaccinated. There’s a major outbreak on campus, presumably of the new variant, but not a single student has experienced severe illness so far. Even so, Cornell is shutting down — finals are shifting from in-class to online, libraries are closing, events are being canceled, visitors are barred. Students are even being told to wear masks … outdoors:

Cornell University requires triply vaxxed 18-year-olds to mask OUTDOORS.

We have failed as a society. pic.twitter.com/Nq1e3qvHbO

— Justin Spiro, LCSW (@Jusrangers) December 15, 2021

Cornell’s not alone. Middlebury University recently went remote for the rest of the semester and several schools have extended mask mandates into next year. Like Cornell, Princeton is asking students to take their finals remotely and to leave campus as soon as possible when they’re done to prevent transmission. The vaccination rate on their campus is north of 98 percent.

At the Atlantic, Ian Bogost channels the exasperation of many COVID hawks who backed restrictions early on in order to flatten the curve and buy time for the vaccines to arrive, only to find that the pandemic is seemingly forever:

The coronavirus was once “novel” because it was new. Now it feels both ancient and eternal. Having endured the emergence of two major strains even since the rollout of vaccines, a difficult thought is planted in my head: What if the pandemic never ends? The scientists tell me that “endemicity” is now the goal: COVID-19 will never go away, but eventually we will be able to control it. That sounds good, but we have just spent a year proving that we cannot control it, even when the tools for control appear to be at hand…

Back at the start of the pandemic, when my youngest was 5 and we lived in another house in a different state, and I worked a different job, she used to talk about what we’d do “after coronavirus.” So many plans. Museums and dining out. Seeing family and going to Disney World. Maybe visiting one of those children’s amusement centers full of inflatable play structures that seemed like a disease vector even before things got weird, and which she has now outgrown anyway.

Everyone knows the past is gone, but now the past’s future feels lost too. I hope it’s not, but I can’t shake the feeling.

Democrats ignore that feeling at their peril. It’s already cost them one election. If COVID hasn’t receded by next November, it’ll cost them more.