"Throughout the pandemic, Democrats have been eager to style themselves as the ones that 'take the virus seriously,' which is shorthand, at least in the bluest states and cities..."

"... for endorsing the most extreme interventions. By questioning the wisdom of school closures—and taking our child out of public school—I found myself going against the party line. And when I tried to speak out on social media, I was shouted down and abused, accused of being a Trumper who didn’t care if teachers died. On Twitter, mothers who had been enlisted as unpaid essential workers were mocked, often in highly misogynistic terms. I saw multiple versions of 'they’re just mad they’re missing yoga and brunch.' Twitter is a cesspool full of unreasonable people. But the kind of moralizing and self-righteousness that I saw there came to characterize lefty COVID discourse to a harmful degree. As reported in this magazine, the parents in deep-blue Somerville, Massachusetts, who advocated for faster school reopening last spring were derided as 'fucking white parents' in a virtual public meeting. The interests of children and the health of public education were both treated as minor concerns, if these subjects were broached at all.... Beyond the infuriating nonresponse to school closures—'kids are resilient'—the discussion regarding masks has also been oblivious at times.... None of this has shaken my support for the Democratic agenda, which I still endorse wholesale. What I’ve lost is my trust that the party is truly motivated to act in the interests of those they claim to serve. How can I get excited about universal pre-K proposals, for example, when K–12 is in shambles?"

Writes Angie Schmitt in "Why I Soured on the Democrats/COVID school policies set me adrift from my tribe" (The Atlantic).