Republicans are desperate to find candidates who won't be trounced on by their whacko Trumper base. After Sean Parnell flamed out in PA when the court determined he shouldn't have custody of his kids due to abuse issues, they were left empty-handed.
In comes Dr. Mehmet Oz, quack doctor and Fox News favorite, to fill the GOP bill. But there's a bit of a problem. Dr. Oz doesn't actually *live* in Pennsylvania. He's lived in New Jersey and had offices in New York, but he isn't a resident of the state he wants to represent. We call that carpetbagging, Dr. Oz. Voting absentee using the address of his wife's parents does not a resident make! In fact, New Jersey and New York voter rolls should be checked to see if he voted more than once in different states!
In what can only be considered a completely disingenuous campaign announcement in the Washington Examiner, Oz attacked the response to COVID without mentioning that it was HIS PARTY that did the things that bothered him. No, really, here's a sample.
The reality of our challenges has crystallized during the pandemic. Over 750,000 in the United States have died from the virus, a devastating toll for families and communities. Many of those deaths were preventable. COVID-19 became an excuse for the government and elite thinkers who controlled the means of communication to suspend debate. Dissenting opinions from leading scholars were ridiculed and canceled so their ideas could not be disseminated.
Some facts: 620,000 people died from COVID in one year -- 2020 -- while Donald Trump was president. Those dying since have largely been unvaccinated, unmasked COVID deniers loyal to Trump. Oddly, Dr Oz didn't mention that. The part about COVID-19 becoming an "excuse for the government and elite thinkers" is just veiled dogwhistled gobbledegook, meaning nothing. The business about dissenting opinions being ridiculed and canceled is more of that. Is he speaking of Ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine, both of which are ineffective and dangerous treatments? This is not my opinion; this is fact. Search our archives here for dead deniers who relied on one or the other of them before they died of the disease they denied.
Shame on him. But wait! There's more.
Instead, the government mandated policies that caused unnecessary suffering. The public was patronized and misled instead of empowered. We were told to lock down quietly and let those in charge take care of the rest. When we tested positive for the virus, we were also told to wait at home until our lips turned blue and we got sick enough to warrant hospitalization. To be clear, this is not a typical medical protocol. Elites with yards told those without yards to stay inside, where the virus was more likely to spread. And the arrogant, closed-minded people in charge closed our parks, shuttered our schools, shut down our businesses, and took away our freedom.
This, coming from a rich quack doctor who co-opted his in-laws' back yard to claim residency in the state he claims to want to represent. Please.
Also, Trump was president when those things happened. HE ordered the lockdown. Do you see any mention of that? Biden didn't lock people down. And here in California, our governor eased the lockdown when local authorities mandated masks and took other measures to lower the transmission rates. Governor Newsom also made vaccines widely available and mandatory for state workers and hospital personnel. As a result, our state is doing really well at keeping the virus under control and the economy alive and thriving.
Dr. Oz goes on to extol the mRNA vaccines as a Trump accomplishment, which to an extent they are. But Trump had no plan for distribution on a wide-scale basis. THAT was Biden. And because Republicans only care about Biden failing, they've encouraged their constituents to turn against the vaccine so the pandemic will be prolonged. Oz and his party own the anti-vax movement, QAnon and the current penchant on the part of the right to be a bunch of trolls to "own the libs." Hell, red states are PAYING people NOT to get the vaccine!
All this argle-bargle about "elites" and "freedom" is just Bircher speak. Oz isn't any different than Sean Parnell or Donald Trump. He's ambitious, money-hungry, and a liar. He uses his medical degree to burnish his credentials while peddling snake oil but adopts the party line of conspiracies and grievance. And he doesn't even live in Pennsylvania!
What a fraud.
