Can Dems let the pandemic go?

So, which is it? Is the pandemic over, or are we bracing for yet another wave that will overwhelm a nation still reeling from a virus that claims roughly 400 lives every day?

Earlier this month, a survey commissioned by the New York Times indicated to op-ed writer David Leonhardt that Covid had become “a good issue” for the party in power. “Americans give the Democrats significantly higher marks” than Republicans when looking back on the pandemic. Republicans should relish the opportunity to test that proposition in the real world, especially since such a gauzy retrospection cannot begin before the pandemic is truly in the rearview mirror.

Joe Biden’s instincts have led him to conclude that moving on is a valuable branding exercise for him and his party. His instincts are probably right, but too many of his administration’s initiatives are bound up with the pandemic to simply declare it over. That assumes this White House’s core constituent groups will sit back and let the pandemic slip away. After all, as CNN correspondent Nick Valencia wrote, “The pandemic isn’t over just because you’re over it.”

That sort of rote hostility toward those who take a dim view of the permanent pandemic was once reserved for Republicans alone. Not anymore.