What you are watching regarding Covid-19 is the inevitable result of what eventually happens when one political party abandons any discernible platform of beliefs and positions and just "plays defense" against the "other side". Its really that simple. In their minds, they can't be seen as "wrong", and the other side can't be seen as "right". These are the people that have framed the discussion as they are the "good guys", and everybody else that disagrees with them are the "bad guys". Because the bad guys can never be seen as right or correct or righteous, they must fight - with whatever ridiculous justification they can find - anything the other side is in favor of. Thus, their response to the pandemic(its a conspiracy some way, some how... it just has to be)

It is this simple. Had covid not been framed the way it was by the RW media, you'd have no more than 10-15% of the country acting this way about masks, mandates and vaccines. Had any other Republican been POTUS last year, the RW media would not be acting like this.