The vaccine rollout is the biggest government success in decades — and a bipartisan victory

6/12/21
 
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by Max Boot,

from The Washington Post,
6/8/21:

I came of age in the 1980s as a Reagan Republican distrustful of “big government.” In 2016, I left the Republican Party, but former president Donald Trump’s unethical and incompetent conduct only further heightened my suspicion of the government. Why should I trust Washington when the previous president abused his power so badly that he was twice impeached?

I am hardly alone in my skepticism. The Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of Americans who trust the federal government to do what is right has fallen from 73 percent during the Eisenhower administration to just 24 percent today.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is correct when he says: “I think a lot of the mistrust in our country right now is the result of policy failure.” Americans have seen decades of government mistakes…

Now we are able to return to our old lives —

Thank you, Uncle Sam. This wouldn’t have happened without the much-maligned government. Indeed, the vaccination rollout may be the most dramatic governmental success story of my lifetime. Its most obvious rivals — the moon landings, the Persian Gulf War, and the end of the Cold War — occurred so long ago that no one under 30 will have personal memories of them.

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Thank you, Uncle Sam. The vaccine rollout is the biggest government success in decades.