By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
"Rand Paul says he doesn't need to be vaccinated. Doctor says he's wrong," trumpets a CNN headline that tops a new fundraising email from our friends at The People's Campaign.
We're with the doctor, too. He's Dr. Jay Varkey, associate professor of medicine at Emory University. Click here to see what he said on CNN.
A two-term Trump-tilting Republican, Paul is up for reelection next year.
"KY Democratic Governor Andy Beshear has done an excellent job throughout the pandemic, especially when it comes to vaccinations," the email says. We agree.
"In fact, this week Gov. Beshear announced that over 2 million Kentuckians have been vaccinated for COVID-19," the email continues. Thousands of us who pack union cards are in that throng.
The email concludes, "But sadly, Rand Paul isn’t one of them. Paul, who is a physician, says that he doesn’t need it. As even more Kentuckians accept the medical science that Rand Paul will not, we will use his words against him with Kentucky voters."
The anti-vaxxer/anti-masker Paul has been dubbed a "covidiot" because of his wacko comments about the deadliest pandemic in a century. The moniker fits.
"The more I hear Rand Paul talk about the coronavirus, the more I’m convinced his medical degree is written in crayon,” the Louisville Courier-Journal's Joseph Gerth wrote of Kentucky’s junior U.S. senator.
Amen.
Not coincidentally, Paul's loopy libertarian politics include fierce opposition to organized labor. He brags on himself for reintroducing a national "right to work" law in the Senate. Paul votes the union position on legislation just 12 percentof the time, according to the latest AFL-CIO Legislative Scorecard. (Mitch McConnell, Kentucky's other union-despising, pro-RTW senator, also scores 12 percent.)
According to the group's website, "The People’s Campaign is a grassroots political action committee. Our purpose is to change politics and policy in ways that positively impact People by:
"Persuading middle class, working class and economically struggling people to participate with a purpose and vote in their own best interests;
"Reinforcing the work of social justice organizations in the political realm and
"Fostering moral progressivism."
Anyway, The People's Campaign hasn't endorsed a candidate to challenge Paul. But anyone wishing to join the organization's "Stand Against Rand" campaign by volunteering or by giving money can click here.