Today’s conservatives don’t have to try too hard to outrage their base. A recent example: Madison Cawthorn, one of countless Republicans currently in Dallas for yet another CPAC conference, decided to demonize President Joe Biden’s plan for, essentially, door-to-door vaccinations. Everyone in his party is doing it, but Cawthorn went farther than most, digging up some old school paranoid fearmongering.
“The thing about the mechanisms they would have to build to be able to actually execute that massive of a thing — and then think about what those mechanisms could be used for,” the North Carolina representative told a television news interviewer. “They could then go door-to-door to take your guns. They could then go door-to-door to take your Bibles.”
Madison Cawthorn says today that Biden’s plan to send people door to door to offer vaccines is really a plot to confiscate people’s bibles and guns. pic.twitter.com/h6CPdJwv9t
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 9, 2021
Ignore that Republicans are furious that [checks notes] Democrats want to ensure that people in Red States are safe from a highly contagious disease that now has an even more transmissible variant. Disregard as well that the vast majority of COVID-19 infections and related deaths are happening in places with low vaccination rates. There simply wasn’t much logic to what Cawthorn — who isn’t even good at spreading voter fraud nonsense — had said.
For one thing, the government already has a service that goes door-to-door.
Someone should tell him the U.S. federal government — aka the Post Office — has been going door-to-door since 1792 & hasn't confiscated any guns or bibles yet. https://t.co/tGS61sa874
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) July 9, 2021
It was, however, a good reminder that Biden is way more religious than Trump.
Dear MAGA: President Biden is a devout Catholic. He’s not going to come take your Bibles(that you don’t read). He is more of a Christian than the guy who has been married three times, divorced twice, and who has cheated on all three wives.
— Erie Siobhan 🇺🇸 (@ErieNotEerie) July 9, 2021
Don’t worry, Madison Cawthorn – Trump defenders don’t actually read Bibles.
If they had, they wouldn’t be Trump defenders. https://t.co/6ZOTMtNJSX— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) July 9, 2021
Gimme a break about your Bibles, Madison Cawthorn. You only use them as props anyway
There is no greater hate than Trump-fueled evangelical “Christian” love
— Lindy Li (@lindyli) July 10, 2021
Some just thought it was dumb.
Madison Cawthorn is a fucking moron. pic.twitter.com/VRa0gMgOud
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) July 9, 2021
https://twitter.com/HartwichLaw/status/1413625048448045063
And others pointed out that it was also dangerous for those tasked with going door-to-door, putting their lives at risk to save lives.
.@RepCawthorn, opposing a vaccination-promotion project, suggests Biden might be coming for your bibles. This is fear-mongering that kills people.
pic.twitter.com/pmitS8hdQy— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) July 10, 2021